Nikkei down 2%, but best month since March

Japan's Nikkei average slid 2% on Thursday, hit by a late yen rise, but still booked its best monthly performance in six months, helped by hopes the central bank will ease policy further and that the yen's rapid advance could be curbed by more intervention by the authorities.
But the benchmark edged down 0.1% for the quarter, sharply lagging other major world indexes.
The yen advanced against the euro, and against the dollar as well, after Ireland's central bank put a 34 bln euro ($46 bln) price on bailing out Anglo Irish Bank under a worst case scenario and said Allied Irish Banks needs to raise an additional 3 bln euros by the end of the year.
Market players said investors began dumping shares in late trade after expected window-dressing failed to emerge, with the yen rise also feeding sales.
"I think the next quarter will likely see the market testing the downside in a tug-of-war between hopes for policy easing and the worsening world economy," said Yutaka Miura, senior technical adviser at Mizuho Securities.
"The Nikkei could break below 9,000 over the next month or two, with the upcoming first-half results likely seeing some downward revisions mainly on the stronger yen."
The benchmark Nikkei fell 190.03 points to 9,369.35, the day's low, but still managed to post a 6.2% gain for September, its best monthly rise since March.
The broader Topix fell 2.1% to 829.51.
Despite the monthly rise, persistent worries about the threat a strong yen poses to the fragile economic recovery sent the Nikkei down 0.1% for the July-September quarter. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan shot up some 17% in the same period.
The euro lost 0.7% against the yen to 113.21 yen and the dollar fell 0.4% to 83.39 yen after earlier falling to its lowest level since Japan intervened to support the dollar on September 15.
Data on Thursday also showed Japan's industrial output unexpectedly fell 0.3% in August in a sign the economy's recovery is losing momentum due in part to a slowdown in export growth, and market players said it weighed on investor confidence.
Nintendo tumbled 9.3% to 20,860 yen after its announcement of a late launch of its new 3D-capable DS handheld game player, as well as weak sales of existing products and a firm yen, forced it to slash its full-year profit forecast by a third.
Mitsumi Electric, a maker of electric machinery parts for Nintendo, plunged 7.2% to 1,280 yen.