Japan's Nikkei average had its biggest one-day percentage fall in two months on Friday after data pointed to slowing factory activity in China and the euro zone's two largest economies and sparked fresh concerns over global economic growth. Fears of slower growth lifted the yen, further weighing on Japanese exporters. Toyota Motor Corp lost 2 percent, Honda Motor Co Ltd slid 2.9 percent and Sony Corp fell 3.1 percent.
The benchmark Nikkei lost 1.1 percent to 10,011.47. For the week, it suffered a 1.2 percent loss, snapping a six-week winning streak. The broader Topix declined 1.1 percent on Friday to 852.53. The yen was last traded at 82.870 against the dollar after hitting a one-week high of 82.329 on Thursday, well off an 11-month low of 84.187 on March 15.
Some market participants said the selloff offered buying opportunities for longer-term investors who remained upbeat on the outlook for Japanese equities. "The market was overheated and it (China and Europe data) provided a good catalyst for investors to take profits," said Shun Maruyama, chief Japan equities strategist at BNP Paribas Securities in Tokyo.
Maruyama said fears of a Chinese hard landing may be premature and said the correction was likely to be temporary. "I do not think this is a turning point for the market, which continues to be on a recovery trend. In fact, if worries about global growth continue to drag markets in the short-term, it might be a good time to buy on the dip," he said. Despite Friday's sell-off, the Nikkei is still up 18.4 percent this year, boosted by a run of strong US economic data and accommodative monetary policies by global central banks.
Through March 17, according to the latest Ministry of Finance data, foreign investors were net buyers of Japanese equities for 12 straight weeks. In the week ended March 17, the net inflow was 287.5 billion yen ($3.49 billion), the highest since April last year.
"If there are names you like, you should pick them up from here, especially names that are heavily down today," said a trader at a foreign bank, give life insurers as well as food and beverage counters as his picks. The insurance sector shed 1.9 percent and the foods sub-index slipped 0.4 percent on Friday.
Deutsche Bank said there were still pockets of good value in Japanese shares, especially among exporters, following the bounce. "Even after the rally, there are some interesting value opportunities in Japanese equities and for patient investors we find more distressed value in Japanese equities than in the credit-stricken European equities," Deutsche said in a report. "The new story is that we may now be facing a structural change regarding the multi-year strengthening of the yen." According to Thomson Reuters Datastream, the Topix carries a 12-month forward price-to-book ratio of 0.98, much cheaper than the S&P 500's 2 and the STOXX Europe 600's 1.39. Underscoring investors' upbeat outlook, the Nikkei volatility index, Japan's fear gauge, rose 2 percent to 20.41 on Friday, far below this year's peak of 24.61 on March 1. The lower the volatility index, the higher the risk appetite. Trading volume was at its lowest level since the end of January, with 1.76 billion shares changing hands on the main board, down from 2 billion shares on Thursday.