Tokyo: Stocks close lower after Wall Street rout

[TOKYO] Tokyo stocks closed lower on Friday following a plunge in US shares on revived worries about the coronavirus and concerns about overheating equity prices.

The benchmark Nikkei fell 0.75 per cent or 167.43 points to end at 22,305.48, dropping 2.44 per cent over the week.

The broader Topix index lost 1.15 per cent or 18.24 points to 1,570.68. It was down 2.59 per cent over the week.

"Investors in the Japanese market were discouraged by a rout in US shares, with trade starting with sharp drops," senior market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama of Monex said in a commentary.

Wall Street stocks plunged Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting 6.9 per cent.

However, after dropping more than 3 per cent at one point, Tokyo stocks pared the losses later in the session as US futures pointed to a positive opening.

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After weeks of focusing on the bright side of reopening economies, the mood of investors shifted with rising coronavirus cases in some reopened US states, including Texas and Arizona.

In Tokyo trading, Sony fell 1.21 per cent to 7,404 yen (S$96.18) while SoftBank Group dropped 2.19 per cent to 5,071 yen.

Toyota slipped 0.75 per cent to 6,853 yen and Takeda Pharmaceuticals lost 1.79 per cent to 3,989 yen.

Uniqlo chain operator Fast Retailing gained 1.07 per cent to 64,000 yen.

The dollar fetched 107.20 yen in Asian trade, against 106.86 yen in New York.

AFP