The Nikkei Index retraced 587 points or 1% in the half-day session, with declines in trading companies, heavy industry, and banking stocks

Japanese stocks fell in the early market, with profit-taking ahead of the weekend. The Nikkei average index opened down 263 points and the decline widened, dropping 587 points or 1% to 58,930 points at midday.

In the AI concept and semiconductor stocks, Kioxia (285A.JP) and Seiko (3436.JP) fell 5.7% and 6.3%, while SoftBank (9984.JP), Tokyo Electron (8035.JP), and Renesas Electronics (6920.JP) dropped 3.2% to 3.5%. Advantest (6857.JP) and Discovision (6146.JP) rose 0.6% and 0.1%. Fiber optic stocks Furukawa Electric (5801.JP) and Fujikura (5803.JP) fell 0.4% and 0.7%.

In metal stocks, JX Metals (5016.JP) fell 1.4%, Mitsui Mining & Smelting (5706.JP) dropped 2.6%, and Sumitomo Metal Mining (5713.JP) plummeted 7.1%. In the rare earth sector, Mitsui Ocean Development (6269.JP) fell 2.7%. Trading companies Itochu (8001.JP) and Sumitomo Corporation (8053.JP) fell 2%, Mitsubishi Corporation (8058.JP) dropped 2.6%, and Mitsui & Co. (8031.JP) and Marubeni (8002.JP) fell 3% and 3.1%. In heavy industry stocks, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.JP) fell 3.3%, Kawasaki Heavy Industries (7012.JP) and IHI (7013.JP) dropped 2.5% and 2.6%. In banking stocks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (8306.JP) fell 3.3%, Mitsui Sumitomo Financial (8316.JP) and Mizuho Financial (8411.JP) dropped 2.2% and 2.4%, while insurance stocks Dai-ichi Life (8750.JP) fell 3.1%.

In other stocks, Fast Retailing (9983.JP) fell 0.4%, Nintendo (7974.JP) rose 3.5%, while Ryohin Keikaku (7453.JP) and Sanrio (8136.JP) fell 2.4% and 2.3%.

The exchange rate of the US dollar against the Japanese yen is 159.37