Tokyo  - Sharp Corp on Wednesday enlarged its expected losses for the fiscal year that ended March 31 in its third downward earnings revision.

The Japanese electronics company said it expected its net loss to expand to 130 billion yen (1.3 billion dollars) from a February forecast of 100 billion yen and its operating loss to worsen to 60 billion yen from 30 billion yen.

Sharp was to suffer its first annual operating loss since 1977 as demand for digital products dwindled amid harsh price competition and the global economic downturn, it said.

Tokyo - Japan's current account balance was cut more than in half in February compared with the same month a year ago but returned to the black after posting a deficit in January, government officials said Wednesday.

The nation's current account surplus narrowed 55.6 per cent in February to 1.12 trillion yen (11.14 billion dollars) on declining exports, the Finance Ministry said.

The trade surplus in goods and services fell 94.3 per cent from a year before to 53 billion yen.

The income surplus fell 34.1 per cent to 1.1 trillion yen, the biggest fall in almost three years.

Tokyo  - The Tokyo market fell Wednesday after concerns over US firms' earnings reports led Wall Street to overnight losses.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average dipped 174.22 points, or 1.97 per cent, in morning trading to 8,658.63.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was down 12.73 points, or 1.53 per cent, at 819.87.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar traded at 100.62-67 yen, up from Tuesday's 5 pm quote of 100.54-56 yen.

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks ended Tuesday morning's trading modestly higher on optimism over the domestic economy and a rise in carmakers' shares caused by expectations for a resurgence in global demand.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average inched up 26.52 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8,884.45.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 4.49 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 835.46.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar traded at 100.43-48 yen, down from Monday's 5 pm quote of 101.15-18 yen.

Tokyo  - Japan's foreign reserves exceeded 1 trillion dollars in March, thanks to gains in the appraisal values of its US Treasury bond holdings and euro-denominated assets, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

The nation's foreign reserves totaled 1.02 trillion dollars, up from 9.2 billion dollars in the previous month.

Japan held 905.53 billion dollars in foreign securities as of March 31 while its foreign currency deposits amounted to 84.2 billion dollars.