The Nikkei index lost 0.83% to 27,106.34 by the
midday break. The broader Topix slipped 0.90% to
1,941.87.
"I had thought the news about rescue for Credit Suisse would
be positive for the market, but it fell deeper than I expected,"
said Shigetoshi Kamada, general manager at the research
department at Tachibana Securities.
"Global investors stay away from risk assets right now so
the Japanese market declines in line with that trend."
In a crisis that began with the collapse of U.S.-based
Silicon Valley Bank last Friday, investors lost confidence in
U.S. regional banks and Credit Suisse in Europe.
Wall Street closed lower on Friday, with three main indexes
ended the session deep in negative territory, with financial
stocks down the most among the major sectors of the S&P
500. Over the weekend, UBS Group AG said it will buy Credit
Suisse for 3 billion francs ($3.2 billion) and assume up to $5.4
billion in losses, in a shotgun merger engineered by Swiss
authorities.
In Japan, the banking sector index on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange lost 0.92% after jumping more than 1% earlier in
the session.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group lost 0.77% and
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group slipped 0.51%.
Mizuho Financial Group fell 1.45%.
Uniqlo brand owner Fast Retailing lost 1.97%.
Chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron and
chip-testing equipment maker Advantest slipped 1.73%
and 0.68%, respectively.
Bucking the trend, oil refiners rose 0.44%.
Idemitsu Kosan advanced 1.20% to become the best
performer on the Nikkei.
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
