Tokyo  - The Tokyo market extended its recent losses Friday after Toyota Motor Corp announced a sharp cut in it earnings forecast for the current fiscal year.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 316.14 points, or 3.55 per cent, to close at 8,583.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 30.3 points, or 3.33 per cent, to 879.

For the week, Nikkei was up 0.07 per cent, and Topix also rose 1.35 per cent.

Toky

Tokyo - Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average extended losses in early trading Friday on prolonged economic concerns and the yen's strength against other currencies, with the benchmark index down 423.18 points, or 4.76 per cent, to 8,475.96.

The Nikkei lost more than 6 per cent in Thursday trading.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar traded at 97.27-32 yen, down from Thursday's 5 pm quote of 97.90-93 yen.

Tokyo - Asian stocks took a big dive Thursday, reacting to a sharp fall overnight on Wall Street and wiping away gains from earlier in the week.

The largest falls in Asia were seen in Hong Kong and Seoul. Hong Kong shares plunged 7.08 per cent as the blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 1,050.12 points to close at
13,790.04.

The losses came 24 hours after the index surged by more than 3 per cent on news of Barack Obama's win in Tuesday's US presidential election.

Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corp on Thursday sharply lowered its earnings projections for the current fiscal year because of a rising yen and slowing auto demand in the United States and Europe amid the global financial crisis.

Japan's leading automaker expected operating income of 600 billion yen (6 billion dollars) for the year that ends March 31, down 62.5 per cent from its initial projection in May.

The figure would also represent a fall of 73.6 per cent from the operating income earned the previous fiscal year.