Roundup: Nikkei falls 0.25 pct on concerns for eurozone following Greek vote

The Nikkei stock index closed 0.25 percent lower Monday, as a victory for the anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece's general election over the weekend triggered concerns for the broader area, punctuated by the fact that Syriza has said it will oppose the massive bailout conditions.

The Nikkei 225 lost 43.23 points to end at 17,468.52, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares edged down 0.08 percent, or 1.14 points, to close at 1,402.08.

Brokers here said that following the left-wing Syriza party winning the Greek elections and comments made by Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras about opposing Greek's bailout conditions set by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, investors were nervous about the course of the eurozone, as Greece plans to take on both Brussels and Berlin regarding its debt.

"The consensus until the end of last week was Greece would extend the duration of its debt and stay in the euro, but it's now not easy to predict that they'll actually agree to this. But if stocks fall, there are expectations the Bank of Japan will buy," said Okasan Securities Co.'s Shoji Hirakawa.

Traders here said that the market was also in a circumspect mood as oil dropped to its lowest level in almost six years, as analysts said Saudi Arabia's new king will likely maintain the nation's production at the same level, and in currency markets the U.S. dollar was changing hands at 117.88 yen, compared to 117.80 logged on Friday.

Mining issues, hence, lost ground on falling prices for crude, with Japan Drilling losing 2.5 percent to 4,210 yen and energy shares also came under pressure, with Cosmo Oil falling 1.3 percent to 158 yen.

Trading company Marubeni slumped 4.7 percent to 671 yen, after announcing that it had slashed its profit forecast by 50 percent to 110 billion yen, owing to write downs of oil, gas and copper.

Automakers ended mixed on the first trading day of the week, with top maker Toyota gaining 0.52 percent to 7,725 yen, while Nissan reversed 0.48 percent to close at 1,030 yen.

Bridgestone was a notable advancer on Monday, however, with the tire maker jumping 2.9 percent to close at 4,666 yen, as Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the company's shares from "equal weight" to "over weight."

Trading volume on Monday dropped to 1.84 billion shares on the Tokyo Exchange's First Section, down from Friday's volume of 2.08 billion shares, with advancing issues beating declining ones by 964 to 748. Endi