By Michael Kitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Japanese stocks lost ground early Friday as the market returned from a holiday, with tech shares trading lower after a loss in the Nasdaq overnight. The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NI225 10,279, -67.29, -0.65%) fell 0.6% to 10,284.7 in light-volume action, while the Topix was down 0.3% to 903.33. Electronics and other tech firms were among the leading decliners, with Elpida Memory Inc. (JP:6665 937.00, +21.00, +2.29%) (ELPDF 10.82, -0.58, -5.09%) down 0.5%, NEC Corp. (JP:6701 250.00, +7.00, +2.88%) (NIPNF 3.05, +0.20, +7.02%) dropping 0.8%, and Renesas Electronics Corp. (JP:6723 807.00, +10.00, +1.25%) (RNECY 4.76, -0.09, -1.86%) losing 0.5%. But shares of Toshiba Corp. (JP:6502 438.00, +2.00, +0.46%) (TOSYY 31.61, +0.06, +0.19%) rose 1.6% after a report in the Nikkei business daily that it plans to sell a chip plant to Sony Corp. (JP:6758 2,970, -40.00, -1.33%) (SNE 35.57, +0.09, +0.25%) , with a Dow Jones Newswires report citing the cost as 50 billion yen ($602 million). Shares of Sony rose 0.2%. |
