Tokyo: Stocks end lower

[TOKYO] Tokyo stocks ended lower on Wednesday (Mar 9), giving up early gains on uncertainty over Ukraine and ahead of US consumer price data due this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.30 per cent or 73.42 points at 24,717.53, while the broader Topix index inched down 0.06 per cent or 0.97 point to 1,758.89.

The dollar fetched 115.72 yen, against 115.69 yen in New York late Tuesday.

The Nikkei opened higher, marking a rebound from 3 straight sessions of losses as investors "grew worried that stocks were falling too rapidly and moved toward buybacks", Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP.

But with the Ukraine situation still extremely volatile, the rebound wasn't indicative of any particular events that are heartening investors, Horiuchi added.

Indeed, market players were "concerned over the impact that high resource prices could have on the economy", Okasan Online Securities said, and share prices slipped back into negative territory by the end of the session.

Declines in the Hong Kong and Shanghai markets also weighed on Tokyo investors, analysts said, while investors are closely watching US consumer price data for February, due on Thursday.

Among major shares in Tokyo, Toyota rallied 1.90 per cent to 1,845.5 yen and Uniqlo casualwear operator Fast Retailing was down 0.66 per cent at 58,690 yen.

SoftBank Group climbed 3.62 per cent to 4,636 yen but Sony Group was down 1.88 per cent at 10,940 yen. AFP