specific factors," he said. "If you think about it just as playing catchup, then weakness in U.S. or European stocks will trigger weakness in stocks in Japan." But investors, particularly foreign ones, flocked to banking stocks on optimism about their future business prospects. Mizuho Financial Group, Japan's biggest banking group, rose 0.8 percent to 547,000 yen and UFJ Holdings Inc., the country's No.4 lender, rose 1.1 percent to 653,000. In a research report on Tuesday, UBS said it was taking an "overweight" stance towards Japanese banks within a global banking benchmark. But other banks fell by late trade as investors cashed in their recent gains. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. fell 0.4 percent to 855,000 yen after hitting a lifetime high of 883,000 yen. Game maker Nintendo Co. extended its losing steak into a fifth day, losing 1.8 percent to 11,190 yen. It said on Tuesday it would delay the release of its latest "Zelda" game until after the year-end holiday season. The company also said it would cut the U.S. price of its Nintendo DS portable videogame device by 13 percent. Trade volume rose, with 2.26 billion shares changing hands, well above last year's daily average of 1.45 billion. Decliners outpaced advancers 950 to 547.
