TOKYO: Japan stocks declined, after the Topix index scored its first weekly advance in 2015, as anti-austerity party Syriza’s election victory lifted up prospects of a renegotiation of Greece’s international bailout.
Nippon Sheet Glass Co., which counts Europe as its biggest market for sales, slipped 2.8 percent. Marubeni Corp., a trading house, slumped 4.7 percent. Energy explorer Inpex Corp. dropped 1.4 percent as oil extended losses. Bridgestone Corp. gained 2.9 percent after Morgan Stanley raised the tiremaker’s rating.
The Topix slid 0.1 percent to 1,402.08 at the close in Tokyo after falling as much as 1.1 percent. The measure increased 2.9 percent last week. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 0.3 percent to 17,468.52 today. The yen added 0.1 percent to 117.67 per dollar after strengthening 0.6 percent on Jan. 23. Data today showed exports from Japan rose more than estimated in December, paring a record annual trade deficit.
“The consensus until the end of last week was Greece would extend the duration of its debt and stay in the euro, but it’s now not easy to predict that they’ll actually agree to this,” said Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo. “But if stocks fall, there are expectations the Bank of Japan will buy.”
Greek Prime Minister-elect Alexis Tsipras set up a confrontation with his European peers as he prepared to form a coalition dedicated to ending austerity, saying the era of bowing to international demands for budget cuts is over. The result hands Tsipras a mandate to confront Greece’s program of austerity imposed in return for pledges of 240 billion euros ($269 billion) in aid since May 2010.
