Japan stocks showed continual decline Thursday because of strong yen and high fuel prices. Also investors began to fear upcoming Japanese and U.S. earnings reports that may be worse-than expected.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average decreased 77.41 points, or 0.59 percent, to 13,034.48 from the previous day. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 5.52 points, or 0.44 percent, to 1,257.38.

The TSE's Second Section index was down 15.64 points, or 0.57 percent, to 2,715.85 on a volume of 17.14 million shares.

Among all the TSE first section issues, 210 increased and 1,450 decreased.

The trading volume reached 1,924.69 million stocks or 2,160.8 billion yen. The Japanese currency is being traded in the level of 100 yen per a U.S. dollar.

Fears for economic outlook increased after the Bank of Japan reported Wednesday that it had downgraded its economic outlook because of weaker business sentiment in Japan. The government reported in the morning that core Japanese private- sector machinery orders dropped a seasonally adjusted 12.7 percent in February compared to the previous month. But the result was better than average market projections.

Export-oriented issues like Toyota, Honda and Sony dropped because of stronger yen against U.S. dollar. Also air transport issues dropped due to high fuel prices.

Traders said, there is fears for U.S. companies earnings reports beginning from next week, but investors have already known that the results would be worse. It seems to be difficult to go under 13,000 line, according to Kabushiki Shimbun.

Japan Nikkei 225 Tokyo Stock Exchange