Japanese shares reverse course, skid ahead of weekend vote

SYDNEY: Japanese shares skidded from a two-month peak on Friday in a sudden reversal sparked by profit-taking ahead of a weekend election that should see Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gain control of the upper house of parliament.

There are worries that a big victory for Abe would allow him to prioritise nationalist policies at the expense of painful structural reform, though markets are hopeful such an outcome will not materialise.