Tokyo: Nikkei closes lower on US-China tensions

[TOKYO] Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index closed marginally lower on Monday, playing catch-up after a four-day weekend, with global risk aversion on intensifying US-China tensions.

The Nikkei 225 index fell 0.16 per cent, or 35.76 points, to 22,715.85 but the broader Topix index gained 0.24 per cent, or 3.73 points, to 1,576.69.

Tokyo stocks opened sharply lower after Wall Street stocks fell for a second session in a row Friday on rising US-China tensions and worries.

"There are concerns that the US-China conflict could intensify further via a chain of retaliatory measures," Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a note, adding resurging coronavirus cases in some US states also weighed on sentiment.

Investors bought on dips in afternoon trade, erasing some of the early losses, "but the US-China dispute weighed on the market throughout the day", said Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities.

In Tokyo trade, high-tech stocks lost ground after Intel plunged on Wall Street on the announcement that its next-generation chips would be delayed by manufacturing problems. Microchip-testing equipment maker Tokyo Electron plunged 2.66 per cent to 28,870 yen with Advantest down 1.33 per cent at 6,650 yen.

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Sony fell 0.77 per cent to 8,196 yen but Toyota edged up 0.11 per cent to 6,737 yen.

ANA Holdings gained 0.35 per cent to 2,373 yen despite the Nikkei business daily reporting the airline group was on course to report a record operating loss for the last quarter.

AFP