Shares of Japanese electronics giants Sony and Panasonic closed down sharply in Tokyo on Friday after both conglomerates reported record financial losses.

Sony Corp.’s stock gave up 78 yen to finish the trading day at 1,135 yen ($14.13), a loss of 6.4 per cent — and a 31-year low.

Panasonic Corp. was off 1.6 per cent to 570 yen ($7.10) and is now down 42 per cent over the last year.

Over the last 24 hours, both companies had reported massive losses.

Sony racked up a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in its fourth straight year of red ink as the once-glorious maker of the Walkman and PlayStation struggles toward a turnaround under a new president.

The electronics and entertainment company, which also makes the Spider-Man movies, reported Thursday a loss of 255 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for the January-to-March period — its fifth straight quarterly net loss to round out a fiscal year that was the worst in its 66-year corporate history.

The latest red ink was worse than 1995, which followed Sony's ambitious but disastrous purchase of Hollywood studio Columbia Pictures.

Panasonic's January-to-March losses ballooned 10-fold to 438 billion yen ($5.5 billion), completing a year of record red ink at the Japanese electronics maker battered by natural disasters and an ailing TV business. The Osaka-based maker of Viera TVs and Lumix digital cameras also reported Friday that its annual loss hit a record 772.2 billion yen ($9.6 billion), a reversal from the 74 billion yen profit a year ago and among the biggest in Japan's manufacturing history.

Both companies' TV operations, centering around flat-panel sets, have been battered by a powerful Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea and other Asian players.

A strong yen has also eroded the value of overseas earnings for the Japanese.

With files from CBC News