By Brad Frischkorn TOKYO--Tokyo stocks fell to a five-week low Thursday, as a wavering dollar, weak technicals and strong futures selling continued to push highly indexed shares such as Fast Retailing lower, along with real estate stocks such as Tokyo Tatemono and a broad swath of exporters. The Nikkei Stock Average suffered its worst fall since last Thursday's 7.3% plunge, and put the index deep into correction territory--defined as a market pullback of at least 10%. The index lost 737.43 points, or 5.2%, to 13,589.03 following the prior session's 0.1% gain. From its 2013 intraday peak on May 23 through today's close, the benchmark has now surrendered over 14%. The Topix index of all the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues also fell 44.45 points, or 3.8%, to 1,134.42, with all 33 subindexes ending in negative territory. "The market continues to be futures-driven, but the downside bias seems stronger now that the Nikkei has broken down technically," said Investrust CEO Hiroyuki Fukunaga, referring to the stock index's performance in terms of technical parameters, including its 25-day moving average. "The Nikkei's obedience to important technical levels had been the most reliable aspect about the six-month rally. Investors are not so sure about the bull market now, and as a result a recovery could take quite a while to play out." With Nikkei futures and options headed for a double-expiration and rollover on June 14, trading may remain volatile until at least then, Fukunaga added. The June Nikkei 225 futures contract closed down 590 points, or 4.2%, at 13,610 on the Osaka Securities Exchange. "Macro funds and commodity trading advisor accounts remain active, tracking the yen's movements," said an equity trading director at a foreign brokerage. "But despite some very encouraging economic data from the U.S., almost nobody is positioning themselves for more stock market upside at the moment. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, as lessened U.S. Fed easing should push up the dollar, while Japan has just begun its own two-year massive easing program. The dollar was changing hands for Y100.74 as of the close of TSE trading at 0600 GMT, well down from prior day levels. "The simple truth is this rally has come so far so fast that a correction has been long overdue," added Tachibana Securities market analyst Kenichi Hirano. Among major movers, highly indexed shares such as Fast Retailing and KDDI were off sharply, falling 11% to Y33,200, and 6.7% to Y4,495, respectively. Kyocera led exporters down with a 5.6% loss to Y9,840, while Tokyo Electron fell 6.2% to Y4,925. Real estate shares tumbled anew after recent steep losses as 10-year government bond yields remained stubbornly close to 0.9%, making the entire sector look that much more overbought. Sumitomo Realty & Development lost 6.7% to Y3,840 while Tokyo Tatemono tumbled 8.8% to Y746. Write to Brad Frischkorn at bradford.frischkorn@dowjones.com

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