Tokyo---Tokyo stocks fell 0.62 percent on Monday after anti-austerity party Syriza swept to victory in Greece's general elections at the weekend, raising fears the country could exit the eurozone.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 108.78 points to 17,402.97 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares slipped 0.53 percent, or 7.39 points, to 1,395.83.
Syriza's victory punished the euro, which was trading at $1.1161 by midday, after dipping to $1.1088 in Tokyo early morning trade, its lowest level since September 2003.
Left-wing Syriza took more than 36 percent of the vote, compared with 28 percent for the conservative New Democracy party of incumbent Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, with more than half of ballots counted.
Syriza's leader Alexis Tsipras vowed to renegotiate the terms of Greece's 240-billion-euro ($269 billion) bailout with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The possibility of Greece defaulting on its debt repayments has stoked concern the country could be forced to leave the eurozone.
"The consensus until the end of last week was Greece would extend the duration of its debt and stay in the euro, but it's now not easy to predict that they'll actually agree to this," Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News.
Official Japanese data Monday showed the country's trade deficit expanded to a record $109 billion last year, but analysts said lower oil prices were likely to narrow the gap.
In share trading, Sony edged up 0.11 percent to 2,740.0 yen. After markets closed on Friday, the firm said it was asking Japanese regulators for permission to delay its earnings release next month after a cyberattack at its Hollywood film unit compromised "a large amount of data".
Sony said its Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) subsidiary would not have time to put together its financial statements after the attack, linked to its controversial North Korea satire "The Interview", which has been widely blamed on Pyongyang.
Toyota slipped 0.10 percent to 7,677.0 yen, while rival Nissan fell 1.01 percent to 1,024.5 yen.
In other forex trading, the dollar was at 117.61 yen, against 117.80 yen on Friday.
On Wall Street, US stocks closed mostly lower Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing down 0.79 percent.
AFP
