Tokyo stocks close lower on profit-taking

Tokyo | AFP

Tokyo stocks gave up early gains and closed lower Tuesday on profit-taking after a three-day winning streak.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.30 percent, or 392.62 points, to 29,696.63, while the broader Topix index was down 1.47 percent, or 29.20 points, at 1,954.34.

The Nikkei index, which on Monday closed above the 30,000 mark for the first time in about two weeks, extended its gain in early trade after Wall Street shares rallied to another record finish.

“But profit-taking emerged as expected following recent gains,” Shinichi Yamamoto, a broker at Okasan Securities in Tokyo, told AFP.

“Trading was thin, indicating that players were on the sidelines, waiting for fresh trading factors,” he said.

“But sentiment is not so bad,” he added, predicting that the Nikkei index would be range-bound around 30,000 points for now.

Shortly before the Tokyo market opened, the government said Japan’s household spending for February fell 6.6 percent from a year ago.

It was the third straight monthly decline, as the government imposed emergency measures to contain coronavirus infections in major economic hubs such as the greater Tokyo area.

Among major Tokyo shares, SoftBank Group lost 1.12 percent to 9,881 yen after announcing plans to buy a 40 percent stake in Norwegian robotics company AutoStore in a deal worth $2.8 billion.

Renesas Electronics lost 2.59 percent to 1,241 yen as news reports said the firm plans to shift some production to a factory in western Japan after a fire damaged its main plant.

Nissan slumped 3.60 yen to 570 yen and Toyota fell 1.12 percent to 8,366 yen.

Sony dropped 2.02 percent to 12,080 yen but Nintendo gained 0.58 percent to 63,710 yen. 

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© Agence France-Presse