TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 0.46 percent Friday morning after talks on reforming Greece’s bailout again ended in deadlock, just days before the cutoff for the country to repay a debt, raising fears it could default.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange eased 94.99 points to 20,676.41 by the break while the Topix index of all first-section issues was down 0.61 percent, or 10.15 points, at 1,660.76.
“Negotiations over Greece have been pushed back into the weekend, so we’ll have a wait-and-see mood,” Hitoshi Asaoka, Tokyo-based senior strategist at Mizuho Trust & Banking, told Bloomberg News.
Greece’s emergency negotiations with its creditors ended abruptly Thursday, pushing the crisis toward a critical weekend meeting in a bid to avoid a default by Athens and its potential exit from the eurozone.
The euro slipped to $1.1182 and 137.85 yen Friday from $1.1206 and 138.53 yen in New York.
The dollar eased to 123.23 yen from 123.62 yen, weighing on exporters.
