TOKYO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Friday as a firm yen impacted exporter issues, while sluggish U.S. retail sales dented market sentiment and sparked concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 239.08 points, or 1.13 percent, from Thursday to close the day at 20,900.63.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 12.52 points, or 0.79 percent, to finish at 1,577.29.

Local brokers said investor sentiment was zapped from the get-go by the Dow Jone Industrial Average's overnight slide, with the market mood also darkened by weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales data.

The U.S. retail sales data for December showed a 1.2-percent drop from a month earlier and marked the biggest fall since September 2009, traders highlighted, with the figures sparking concerns about a slowdown in growth of the world's largest economy.

Adding to a dour market mood was the dollar's fall to the 110-yen level, which negatively impacted issues with a broad exposure to overseas markets who are usually reliant on a weaker yen to boost profits and overall competitiveness, market analysts said.

"The stronger yen prompted investors to sell stocks in order to lock in recent gains following a sharp rise earlier this week," Makoto Sengoku, market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute., was quoted as saying.

By the close of play, non-ferrous metal, service and machinery-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and falling issues beat rising ones by 1,311 to 726 on the First Section, while 92 ended unchanged.

On the main section, 1,277.82 million shares changed hands, dropping from Thursday's volume of 1,345.17 million shares.

The turnover on the final trading day of the week came to 2,232.6 billion yen (20.23 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem

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