Tokyo’s markets were lower on Thursday.
The Nikkei 225 was 0.45 percent lower to 16,284.17 and the Topix index was down 1.01 percent to 1,548.07, while the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 3.77 percent to 888.75.
Banks were still feeling the fallout of an announced $8.4 billion in writedowns by Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER; TYO: 8675), which said it lost $2.24 billion in the third quarter.
Sumitomo Mitsui (TYO: 8316) was down 1.3 percent to ¥829,000, while Mitsubishi UFJ (TYO: 8306; NYSE: MTU) was 1.9 percent lower to ¥1,018 and Mizuho dropped 3.9 percent to ¥588,000 after a report that it will take a ¥50 billion ($438 million) first-half loss due to exposure to US subprime loans, although it will still make its income forecast due to gains in other units.
In the semiconductors sector, Toshiba (TYO: 6502; LSE: TOS) added 1.7 percent to ¥967 on the strength of better sales of flash memory chips.
On the other hand, Elpida Memory (TYO: 6665) dropped 4.7 percent to ¥3,860 after it said net income was down 75 percent in its fiscal second quarter on lower prices.
UBS downgraded Elpida from “buy” to “neutral”.
In the internet sector, Yahoo Japan (TYO: 4689) fell 9 percent to ¥50,800 after reporting a drop in profits for the quarter.