Nikkei's tech woes

TOKYO - Stocks closed weaker yesterday, led by losses in high-tech manufacturers such as NEC and Sanyo Electric, as investors fretted over a recent series of profit warnings from US tech firms.

"Investors initially guessed Japan's high-techs were quite independent of the US market, but everyone's been quite worried since there have been so many profit warnings," said Masafumi Nakayama, strategist at Mito Securities.

Personal computer and chip-maker NEC fell 3.85 per cent to 2375 yen.

Fujitsu slid 3.14 per cent to 2470 yen and Sanyo shed 3.25 per cent to 1013 yen.

Internet investor Softbank Corp fell 3.71 per cent to 9350 yen, hurt by losses in web-based media giant Yahoo - in which it has a 22.58 per cent stake - hit by concern of a slowdown in advertising revenue for online sites.

Computer game-maker Namco plunged 11.75 per cent, closing at 2515 yen.