Nikkei down 0.7% as tech shares drag

Tokyo: The Nikkei slid 0.7% on Friday, dragged lower by high-tech stocks such as Tokyo Electron on a brokerage downgrade and after China’s Baidu.com Inc. tumbled on the tech-heavy US Nasdaq.

Shares of Fast Retailing dropped after its profit fell more than expected, while Sony Corp lost ground after its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson posted a year-on-year fall in pretax profit for July-September.

Banks such as Mizuho Financial Group Inc also weighed on the market after Lehman Brothers lowered its target prices for these issues.

The benchmark Nikkei was down 127.81 points to finish at 17,331.17. On Thursday, it had the highest finish since July 26 at 17,458.98.

The TOPIX index shed 1.1 percent or 18.04 points to end at 1,659.48. It logged its highest close since 9 August at 1,677.52 the previous session.

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