TOKYO, March 23 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average is likely to fall on Monday, with banking shares seen soft after their peers slid on Wall Street and as investors nervously await the announcement of U.S. plans to further help the financial system.
"The market will probably trade below the 8,000 mark after U.S. stocks continued to fall," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC.
"But if hopes for U.S. financial plans such as the 'bad bank' scheme due to be announced later were to arise during Tokyo trading hours, the Nikkei could recover to the level where it ended the previous week."
U.S. S&P 500 index futures rose at the start of electronic trading on Sunday after media reports detailed the U.S. Treasury's three-pronged bid to cleanse the financial system of "toxic" assets clogging banks' balance sheets.
Japanese markets were closed on Friday for a national holiday.
Nikkei futures traded in Chicago closed at 7,825 on Friday, 35 points below the Osaka close, pointing to a slightly lower opening.
Market participants expect the benchmark Nikkei to move between 7,700 and 7,900 on Monday, after the index ended Thursday down 0.3 percent at 7,945.96. It gained 5 percent on the week. STOCKS TO WATCH
-- Toshiba Corp
Toshiba plans to mass-produce compact fuel cells for recharging such devices as cellular phones and notebook computers starting as early as next month, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.
Toshiba is aiming for 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in sales from the business by fiscal 2015, the Nikkei said.
-- Park 24 Co
Parking lot operator Park 24 will acquire Mazda Car Rental Corp for several billion yen to expand into the car-sharing business through its 8,600 or so parking lots nationwide, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.
-- Sony Corp
Sony Ericsson, a 50-50 mobile phone joint venture between Sony Corp and Sweden's Ericsson, said on Friday it expected to make a pretax loss of 340-390 million euros in the first quarter, hurt by weak demand.
-- Canon Inc and other office equipment makers
Xerox Corp chopped its first-quarter earnings forecast by as much as 85 percent on Friday, as the slowdown in office equipment spending badly hurt revenue and thwarted its cost-cutting efforts.
In addition to Canon, Xerox's rivals include Konica Minolta Holdings and Ricoh Co Ltd.
Fujifilm Holdings Corp owns 75 percent of Fuji Xerox, an office equipment venture with Xerox. Xerox holds the remaining 25 percent.
-- USJ Co Ltd
The operator of Japan's Universal Studios theme park, USJ, said on Thursday it ARY STX ISU ASIA CN EMRG MEVN said on Thursday it ARY STX ISU ASIA CN EMRG MEVN