Tokyo, March 11 (DPA) Japanese shares dropped in Friday morning trading following an overnight plunge on Wall Street as investors were concerned about planned protests in Saudi Arabia as well as ongoing conflict in major oil producer Libya.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 87.04 points, or 0.83 percent, to trade at 10,347.34 while the broader Topix index was down 9.07 points, or 0.97 percent, at 921.77.
Investors feared that planned protests in Saudi Arabia Friday could cause the unrest in the Middle East to continue to spread.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.87 percent Thursday, hurt by worse-than-expected US weekly jobless claims.
On currency markets at 9 a.m. (0000 GMT), the dollar traded at 82.89-92 yen, up from Thursday's 5 p.m. quote of 82.76-77 yen.
The euro traded at $1.3798-3803, down from $1.3830-3831 Thursday, and at 114.40-43 yen, little changed from 114.46-50 yen.