Japan stock market week to Jan 12, 2009

Tokyo retreated in the week to January 12 (four trading days only because the        last day was a national holiday in Japan). The Nikkei  225 was down 2.3%, to close at the 8,800 mark, while the Topix index  fell 2.4%. The market opened higher but suffered a setback towards the  weekend, reflecting profit-taking of export-oriented issues and a dearth  of positive news. Investors continued to anticipate that forthcoming  October-December 2008 quarterly earnings reports of Japanese companies -  to be unveiled later this month - would likely involve some downward  revisions to their full-year guidance due to the impact of the global  economic downturn and the yen's strength. The pharmaceutical index  dropped 4.7%, underperforming the market.