Tokyo: Shares end lower on car export slump, geopolitical tensions

[TOKYO] Japanese stocks ended lower on Wednesday as carmakers dragged following weak export data, while escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea also doused the market sentiment.

The benchmark Nikkei average closed 0.56 per cent lower to 22,455.76, while the broader Topix lost 0.40 per cent to 1,587.09. The Nikkei had posted its biggest intraday percentage gain in three months in the previous session.

Japan's exports shrank to the lowest levels in a decade as shipments of automobile to the US slumped. This offset optimism around an overnight rally on Wall Street, where all three major US stocks hit third consecutive daily gains.

Shares of export-oriented automakers underperformed, with Mazda Motor dropping 4.34 per cent, Suzuki Motor down 3.13 per cent and Mitsubishi Motor falling 3.07 per cent.

Investors were also rattled by escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea after North Korea demolished an inter-Korean liaison office and rejected an offer by South Korea to send special envoys, vowing to send troops back to the border.

On the Nikkei index, there were 32 advancers against 186 decliners.

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As concerns about the coronavirus progress resurfaced, highly cyclical airlines went down 2.22 per cent and textiles falling 1.68 per cent

"Worries about a 'second wave' and hopes for a global economic recovery have been playing tug of wars," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

Bucking the overall weakness, SoftBank Group surged 5.02 per cent after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Japanese technology company plans to sell "a significant portion" of its stake in T-Mobile to controlling shareholder Deutsche Telekom AG.

Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells dexamethasone, gained 4.68 per cent after a preliminary trial results in the United Kingdom showed that this steroid drug reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients.

In the startup market, the Mothers Index climbed 2.13 per cent.

REUTERS