Japan stock market week to March 19, 2007

Tokyo gave up the previous week's strength and fell in the week ended March 19. The Nikkei 225 lost 1.6% following mixed movements, although the 17,000 mark was maintained at the close, while the Topix index dropped 2.7%. The market suffered a sharp daily setback mid-week, triggered by a tumble of New York markets with US concerns about increasing failures of subprime housing loans, but later staged a modest recovery following the rebound of US markets. Investors bought-back on the recent weakness of export-led stocks and domestic economy-based issues such as steel and machinery.