Nikkei declines

Tokyo
Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped on Friday morning after weaker-than-expected US housing data soured the mood, while investors awaited Japanese corporate earnings starting next week.
Also dampening sentiment was weakness in Europe shares and concern about Greece’s financial woes.
At mid-morning, the Nikkei was down 0.5 percent to 19,780.69.
The Nikkei traded above the psychological mark of 20,000 last Friday for the first time since April 2000, but the first
four days of this week the index barely changed. With the full-year earnings season just around the corner, investors await full-year forecasts for the year ending March 2016, which analysts said they expect to be conservative, as usual.
Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities, said that while his brokerage expects a 15 percent rise in pretax profits, companies will likely forecast a 0-5pc rise.