By Chris Oliver
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Japan's Nikkei Stock Average breached the 9,000-point-level, smashing what had provided support on a handful of occasions during the past year, to end at a 15-month low Tuesday. Investors sold exporter shares and techs as the yen strengthened, with the U.S. dollar falling below the ¥85 level. The Nikkei shed 1.3% to end at 8,995.1, its lowest close since May 2009. The broader Topix retreated 0.9% to 817.7. The action in Tokyo was dominated by currency trading as the euro also weakened to a nearly nine-year low of ¥107.40, compared to ¥107.95 in late North American trade, while the U.S. dollar eased to ¥84.91 versus its overnight level of ¥85.25. Among exporter and technology stocks to suffer big losses, Nikon Corp. [s; jp:7731] (NINOY 177.02, -0.23, -0.13%) fell 4%, Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TOELY 100.56, -1.44, -1.41%) (JP:8035 4,260, -110.00, -2.52%) dropped 3.8%, and Elpida Memory Inc. (JP:6665 1,060, -37.00, -3.37%) fell 4.8%. Banking stocks' declines were generally in line with the major indexes, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (JP:8036 1,434, -35.00, -2.38%) (MTU 4.85, -0.04, -0.82%) retreating 1%.
