2013.04.0400:58:21UTC+00Japan stocks dive sharply ahead of central bank call

Japanese stocks drop hard out of the Thursday open, weighed by gains for the yen overnight ahead of a key central-bank decision. The Nikkei Stock Average gave up 1.9% to 12,126.43 in early moves, with the Topix dropping 1.5%, as the dollar's moves below the 93-yen level hurt most major exporters. Car shares, which had rallied in the past session, were among the hardest hit: Toyota Motor Corp. decline 2.3%, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. surrenders 2.6% each, and Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. slumped 3.5%. Among industrial majors, Sumitomo Chemical Co. tumbled 3.7%, and Toshiba Corp. relinquished 2.6%, though Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. managed to advance 1% after a Nikkei news report stating it had won a $22 billion Turkish nuclear-power-plant contract in conjunction with France's Areva SA. Shares of Sony Corp. diminish 2.4%, and those of Olympus Corp. descends 4.3% lower, even as Dow Jones Newswires reported the two planned to launch their medical-device joint venture this month after a series of delays. The declines in Tokyo came ahead of the first Bank of Japan policy decision under newly minted Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, due later in the day, with the market assuming fresh and meaningful easing actions.