The benchmark Nikkei .N225 shed 139.02 points to 8,707.99.On the week it shed 2.2 percent The broader Topixslipped 1.1 percent to 830.05. Most in the market said the Nikkei was likely to move in atight range over the next week or so, solidly supported but withinvestors skittish before the results of U.S bank “stresstests” Those results are due out on May 4, but U.S. regulators begindiscussing their findings with the banks on Friday and U.S.officials will outline publicly the process they followed. After the close, Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T), Japan’sbiggest brokerage, posted a fifth straight quarterly net loss,hit by costs related to its acquisition of parts of failedinvestment bank Lehman Brothers. [ID:nT1801] KDDI DRAGS, STEELMAKERS DROP “Steelmakers are being more cautious than usual in theircomments and forecasts,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fundmanager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management. “Considering how hard it is to read the economic climate,these results by themselves don’t make me want to go out and buysteel shares.” JFE slid 3.1 percent to 2,825 yen, extending losses afterGoldman Sachs downgraded ratings on it and Nippon Steel (5401.T)to “sell” from “neutral”, saying further upside in their stockprices appears to be limited after sharp gains. JFE did not provide a profit forecast for this business year,saying new term contract agreements on the price of iron ore, akey raw material used in steelmaking, have yet to be set.

For the January-March quarter, JFE reported an 83 percentslide in profit, hit by a double whammy of crumbling global steeldemand and a stronger yen hurting its exports. [ID:nT150928] Nippon Steel (5401.T) dropped 4.2 percent to 340 yen. Among the biggest drags on the Nikkei 225 was KDDI, Japan’ssecond-biggest wireless carrier, which sank 5.2 percent to440,000 yen. KDDI forecast only a 6 percent rise in operating profit to470 billion yen ($4.8 billion) for the year to March, citing adecline in sales expenses, below the average 478.5 billion yenprofit projected by eight brokerages polled by Reuters. Honda Motor Co (7267.T) slid 2.9 percent to 2,680 yen andNissan Motor Co (7201.T) skidded 4.8 percent to 494 yen ToyotaMotor Corp (7203.T) fell 2.1 percent to 3,810 yen.

Among gainers, Mizuho gained 3.7 percent to 199 yen andSumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) jumped 4.6 percent to3,090 yen. The banking subindex .IBNKS.T rose 1.4 percent, oneof the top gainers among the subindexes. Trade was active on the Tokyo exchange’s first section, with2.7 billion shares changing hands, compared with last week’sdaily average of 2.6 billion. Declining stocks outnumbered advancings ones by nearly 3 to1. (Additional reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by ChrisGallagher) Stocks Asian Markets Japan.