The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened down 38.33 points at 8,363.39. European sovereign debt problems weighed with few domestic buying cues, said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of the equity division at SMBC Nikko Securities. On Friday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Belgium's credit rating by two notches. Fitch Ratings lowered its outlook on France's triple-A rating to negative from stable and placed six eurozone nations, including Spain and Italy, on watch for downgrade. "Downgrades don't really surprise us these days, but they will still weigh on sentiment," Nishi told Dow Jones Newswires. Eurozone finance ministers will hold talks on the debt crisis later Monday to flesh out plans made at a Brussels summit this month to save the European currency. With several members under threat of downgrades, a key focus of the telephone conference will be boosting International Monetary Fund (IMF) coffers to enable it to come to the aid of floundering economies. At the recent summit, which saw Britain block plans for EU treaty change to save the currency, member countries announced plans to pump 200 billion euros ($260 billion) into an IMF warchest. The euro bought $1.3035 and 101.43 yen in early Asian trade Monday, compared with $1.3032 and 101.37 yen in New York late Friday. The dollar was also almost flat against the Japanese currency, trading at 77.81 yen. US stocks finished mostly higher Friday as investors digested tame US inflation data and a weak market debut of social games giant Zynga. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.02 percent to close at 11,866.39 while the broader S&P 500 climbed 0.32 percent to 1,219.66.