TOKYO: Japanese stocks ended 0.25 percent weaker and exporters have booked gains after five days while a powerful yen dragged the stocks down in thin Christmas Day trade.
On Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed 45.48 points lower at 17,808.75, after climbing 6.6 percent between December 16 and December 24. Thursday’s benchmark Nikkei was the lowest trade by volume since September 1.
The Topix index slipped 0.33 percent, or 4.76 points, to 1,421.26. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 also dropped 0.3 percent to close at 12,923.60.
The benchmark Nikkei had elevated by more than six percent over the past five trading days amid optimism at US economic growth and the yen’s drop in value against the US dollar. However, in New York trade on Thursday, the yen made a rebound and the dollar edged down to 120.14 yen from the earlier 120.44.
“The market’s fundamentals haven’t changed much,” Mitsushige Akino, the executive officer at Tokyo-based Ichiyoshi Asset Management, said, adding, “Foreign investors are on holiday, and we don’t have a lot of participants.”
The stocks of the flag carrier of Japan, Japan Airlines, tumbled 4.03 percent to 3,570.0 yen on a media report that said the government has decided to scrap a corporate tax waiver previously granted to companies to recover from bankruptcy. The airliner had gone bankrupt in 2010, but a government bailout helped the firm to re-list its shares in Tokyo trade in 2012. It continued to post strong earnings since then.
The shares of Japanese auto parts maker Takata closed 1.88 percent higher at 1,351.0 yen, a day after its president and chief operating officer, Stefan Stocker, stepped down over defective airbags that prompted recalls of over 20 million vehicles worldwide.
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