(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market finished lower for the first time in Three days on Monday as investors locked in profits from last week’s rally. Additionally, exporters were weaker on the back of a firmer yen. The benchmark Nikkei N225 index closed down 115.1 points or 1.4% at 8,397.2 after a posting a gain of 7.6% in the previous week. The broader Topix index lost 7.4 points to 827.5.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the mid 95-yen levels in late Tokyo deals, flat with its levels in early trade and late Friday in Tokyo. The dollar was quoted at 95.28-95.30 yen.

U.S. stocks closed higher for a fifth day on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 102.4 points or 1.2% to 8,829.0, the S&P 500 index advanced 8.6 points or 1.0% to 896.2, and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 3.5 points or 0.2% to 1,535.6.

Oil prices fell on Monday in Asian trading after the OPEC decided to delay a third supply cut to its next meeting later in December. At 2:23 a.m. ET, oil was quoted at $53.30 a barrel, down $1.13 form Friday’s close of $54.43 a barrel.

On the economic front, the latest provisional report of Monthly Labor Survey from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed that total labor cash earnings in Japan declined for the first time in ten months. Total cash earnings were down 0.1% year-over-year in October, compared to a revised increase of 0.2% in September.

Meanwhile, the Japan Automobile Dealers’ Association said that domestic auto sales plunged 27.3% year-over-year in November after falling 13.1% in October. Total sales amounted to 215,783 vehicles. Auto sales dropped for the fourth straight month.

Among tech exporters, consumer electronics giant Sony dropped 0.6%, Sharp declined 0.2%, Canon gave away 0.4%, Komatsu fell 1.8%, Advantest shed 3.1%, industrial robot maker Fanuc lost 2.0%, and Kyocera Corp slid 1.7%.

Automakers fell on the back of a plunge in domestic auto sales in November. Toyota Motor fell 1.8%. Honda Motor plunged 2.9% after a top executive of the company said that it would have a tough time meeting its lowered annual profit forecasts due to an increasingly severe sales environment.

In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group lost 2.3%, but Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group gained 0.6% and Mizuho Financial Group advanced 0.4%.

Among commodity-related stocks, Mitsubishi Corp edged up 0.1%, Mitsui & Co rose 0.7%, but oil and gas miner Inpex Holdings sank 4.4% and Nippon Oil fell 1.4%.

NTT DoCoMo gained 3.7% after the Nikkei business daily reported that Carlyle-controlled firm Willcom Inc will launch low-priced mobile data services using DoCoMo’s network in early 2009.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Japan, Releases, USA.

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