(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Tokyo stocks slipped 0.88 percent on Friday following a sell-off on Wall Street, easing from a seven-year high reached in the previous session.
The key Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 144.28 points to 16,229.86, while the Topix index of all first-section shares eased 1.08 percent, or 14.48 points, to 1,331.95.
"Japan is never immune to global equity sentiment which, at least for the moment, has taken an abrupt turn for the worse," said Naoki Fujiwara, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management.
"The dollar remains relatively strong, however, and expectations for more government pension fund exposure to domestic equities are keeping hopes high for more stock buying," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
US stocks sank Thursday as investors fretted about heady valuations and quarter-end profit taking.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.54 percent while the broad-based S&P 500 lost 1.62 percent.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.94 percent, led by Apple, whose embarrassing problems with its new operating system and criticisms that its new iPhones are too easily bent took some wind out of its sails.
The dollar was at 109.02 yen in Friday Asian trade, up from 108.73 yen in New York but still well off the 109.30 yen seen earlier Thursday in Tokyo.
The euro bought $1.2742 and 138.91 yen against $1.2750 and 138.62 yen in US trade.
Among major shares, Honda Motor dropped 1.88 percent to 3,744.5, while Toyota slipped 1.48 percent to 6,453.0.
Mobile carrier SoftBank fell 0.76 percent to 7,900.0 and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group shed 2.28 percent to 625.2.
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