TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 0.44 percent on Friday morning, hit by concerns over the US economy and fears about Greece’s still-unresolved bailout reform talks.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 89.24 points to 20,398.95 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares was down 0.71 percent, or 11.89 points, at 1,662.00.
Wall Street ended lower after the International Monetary Fund slashed its forecasts for US growth this year to 2.5 percent from a previous estimate of 3.1 percent, citing a ports strike, bad winter weather, a strong dollar and the oil downturn.
Fund head Christine Lagarde also called on the Federal Reserve to refrain from hiking interest rates until 2016, saying conditions were not supportive of a move this year.
The Dow fell 0.94 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.86 percent and the Nasdaq shed 0.79 percent.
Her comments come as markets await the release Friday of US jobs growth for May, which is used by the Fed to guide rate policy.
