TOKYO, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index closed lower on Monday as chip-related issues followed their U.S. peers lower and a firmer yen dented exporter shares.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 120.20 points, or 0.42 percent, from Friday to close the day at 28,162.83.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, dropped 13.69 points, or 0.68 percent, to finish at 2,004.31.

Local brokers here said that semiconductor issues here took a hit following the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing lower on Friday, along with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index also losing ground.

"Amid a lack of trading incentives, the fall in the Nasdaq late last week prompted the decline in chip-related stocks," Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co., was quoted as saying.

Investment analysts also said that exporter issues came under pressure on Monday due to the U.S. Federal Reserve's potentially more dovish stance on the pace of its interest rate hikes looking ahead, sending the U.S. dollar lower versus the Japanese yen.

Japanese exporters rely on a weaker yen versus its major counterparts to boost profits made overseas when repatriated. A weaker yen also enhances price-competitiveness for Japanese firms in global markets, they said.

By the close of play, iron and steel, mining and real estate-linked issues comprised those that declined the most.

Among semiconductor-linked issues losing ground, chip-testing equipment maker Advantest lost 0.5 percent, while fellow Nikkei heavyweight Tokyo Electron relinquished 1.6 percent.

Technology startup investor SoftBank Group weighed on the broader market, losing 0.6 percent, while exporters lost ground on the yen's rise.

These included Toyota reversing 1 percent, while fellow automaker Honda skidded down 0.5 percent.

Game and console maker Nintendo slipped 0.9 percent on the yen's rise, while Sony ended the day 0.8 percent lower.

Among other notable decliners, Hakuhodo DY Holdings slumped 2.6 percent after its offices were raided by Japanese prosecutors and a fair trade watchdog on Monday.

The raids were carried out on suspicion of bid-rigging connected to last year's Tokyo Olympics.

Along with another advertising agency ADK Holdings Inc. admitting its culpability, and ad giant Dentsu being raided on Friday, all of Japan's top-three advertising firms are now implicated in a widening bid-rigging scandal for the rights to arrange test events for last year's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

On the Prime Market on Monday, 1,132.76 million shares changed hands, rising from Friday's volume of 999.55 million shares, with falling issues outpacing rising ones by 1,272 to 507, while 58 ended the day unchanged.

The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 2,558.25 billion yen (18.57 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem

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