Japanese shares fall on Wall Street tech rout

TOKYO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Japanese shares fell on Friday,
after a sell-off in high-flying U.S. technology stocks dragged
Wall Street's main indexes to their sharpest decline in nearly
three months.
The benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 declined 0.96% to
23,240.95, retreating from its highest close since Feb. 21 hit
in the previous session. Declining issues outnumbered advancers
by 163 to 58 on the index.
In the broader market, Topix .TOPX lost 0.73% to 1,619.33,
with nearly two-thirds of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo
exchange trading in negative territory.
For the week, the Nikkei index has gained nearly 1.6% and
Topix has climbed 0.9%.
By sectors, precision instruments .IPRCS.T , information
and telecoms .ICOMS.T , and services .ISVCS.T were the three
underperformers on the main bourse, down 1.94%, 1.60% and 1.52%,
respectively.
Overnight, Wall Street's main indexes posted their biggest
single-day percentage declines since June, dragged by heavy
losses across the technology sector.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost almost 5% a day after it
posted a record close, with heavyweights including Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Amazon Inc AMZN.O
weighing the most.
The top percentage loser on the Nikkei index was
semiconductor manufacturer Alps Alpine Co 6770.T with a drop
of around 4%.
Also weighing on Tokyo-listed technology sector was an
overnight drop in the Philadelphia chip index .SOX , which fell
almost 6%.
Tokyo Electron 8035.T dipped 2.47% and SoftBank Group Corp
9984.T lost 2.66%, while Murata Manufacturing Co 6981.T was
down 1.88%.
Meanwhile, Honda Motor Co 7267.T climbed 2.71% after it
revealed its plans with U.S. General Motors GM.N to team up in
North America to jointly develop a range of vehicles.
Toyota Motor 7203.T also firmed, up 1.07%, as its sales in
China surged last month. Elsewhere, the index of Mothers start-up market .MTHR
slipped 2.87% to 1,136.89%.