Tokyo---Tokyo stocks fell 1.02 percent Thursday morning, following a weak lead from Wall Street and concerns over Greece's debt plan, despite a 15 percent surge in Sony after it hiked its earnings outlook.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 179.53 points to 17,499.21 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares slipped 0.58 percent, or 8.28 points, to 1,408.72.
US shares gave up late gains Wednesday after the European Central Bank put fresh pressure on Athens by stopping Greek lenders from using government bonds as collateral, cutting off a much-needed line of credit.
That dented hopes for a quick deal on renegotiating its 240-billion-euro international rescue.
The Dow, which had surged during the day, ended flat, while the S&P 500 fell 0.42 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.23 percent.
Investors were rattled by the ECB's announcement Wednesday that it would no longer allow Greek banks to use government debt, which has a junk rating, as collateral for loans.
Under the terms of its bailout, Greek banks had been given a waiver to use government bonds -- which have a junk rating -- as collateral as long as Athens stuck to its obligations. The ECB said it was no longer confident Athens could show it was meeting bailout programme requirements.
It means Greek banks cannot pledge their government bonds as liquidity collateral from February 11, leaving them dangerously short of access to funding and darkening hopes for a quick deal in bailout negotiations.
The news weighed on the euro and sparked a move into the yen, which is a negative for Japanese exporters as it hurts their profitability.
Toyota fell 0.94 percent to 7,655.0 yen, despite the world's biggest automaker on Wednesday raising its full-year net profit forecast to a record $18.1 billion.
Hitachi dropped 9.95 percent to 780.04 yen after the trains-to-elevators conglomerate missed third-quarter profit expectations. And energy giant Inpex fell 3.88 percent to 1,362.0 yen after global oil prices slid Wednesday following a three-day rally.
However, Sony surged 15.35 percent to 3,194.0 yen. The firm jumped as high as 18 percent to its best intraday level in nearly five years after saying Wednesday it now expects to lose 170 billion yen in its fiscal year to March, much narrower than the 230 billion yen first projected.
It also projected an operating profit of 20 billion yen, turning around an October forecast that it would lose 40 billion yen.
AFP
