TOKYO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Thursday as weak export data sparked concerns over Japanese firms' fiscal year earnings, while other Asian bourses' retreating added to a downbeat market mood.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 182.96 points, or 0.8 percent, from Wednesday to close the day at 22,658.16.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 9.23 points, or 0.54 percent, to finish at 1,704.64.
A comparatively weak yen versus the U.S. dollar in early trade gave exporters a lift, local brokers said, but gains were reversed later as investors digested the latest trade figures released from Japan which came in under par.
The figures were down for the first time in almost two years, market strategists here noted, sparking concerns that Japanese firms might not upwardly revise their earnings for this fiscal year.
"The data led investors to assume that companies will not revise their earnings upward for the current fiscal year ending March," Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at the NLI Research Institute, was quoted as saying.
Other Asian bourses also losing ground fed into a dour market mood here, investments strategists also highlighted.
By the close of play, oil and coal product, mining, and chemical-related issues comprised those that declined the most, and falling issues beat rising ones by 1,313 to 709 on the First Section, while 87 ended the day unchanged.
The turnover on the penultimate trading day of the week came to 2,270.0 billion yen (20.17 billion U.S. dollars).
