Japan Stocks Retreat In Face Of U.S. Losses, Yen's Gains

LOS ANGELES – Japanese stocks gave ground Monday, taking cues from Friday's losses on Wall Street and some gains for the yen. The Nikkei Average was down 0.8%, though off early losses of around 2%, while the broader Topix was down 0.7% after the Japanese general election produced little in the way of surprises, and as the Bank of Japan's tankan business-sentiment survey yielded mixed results. The U.S. dollar bought �118.31, above its level just ahead of the tankan but still below the �118.73 seen at the previous Tokyo stock close. This, in turn, weighed on the exporters, as Fuji Electric Co. fell 2%, Olympus Corp. lost 2.2%, Hitachi Ltd. gave up 1.6%, Toyota Motor Corp. retreated 1.7%, and Nissan Motor Co. was weaker by 1.8%. Shares of Sony Corp. dropped 2.1% as the conglomerate's Sony Pictures unit continued to suffer from a rash of cyber-attacks that laid bare many of the company's secrets. Among the gainers, Skymark Airlines Inc. jumped 5.4% after seesawing in the previous week's trade amid speculation over whether the discount carrier would enter a code-share deal with larger rivals Japan Airlines Co. and ANA Holdings Inc. . Swiss industry-news website CH-Aviation reported Sunday that Skymark had rejected calls for a three-way alliance. Shares of JAL and ANA fell 2.5% and 2.1%, respectively.

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