TOKYO: Tokyo shares were flat at the start of trade on Tuesday. Picking up a weak lead from Wall Street which was pushed down by a slump in oil prices.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange edged down 0.04 percent, 0.28points 19,689.87, while the broader Topix of all first-section shares edged up 0.11 percent, or 1.82 point, to 1,587.03.
“We“ll probably see a weak performance led by mining and raw meterial stocks as we did in the US ,” Mizuho Securities analyst Yutaka Miura told Bloomberg News.
“Its likely that cheap oil will couninue to be a weight on US shares ,” he added.
Petroleum-linked stockd tumbled Monday with crude prices sinking to their lowest since February 2009 in the wake of last week’s OPEC decision not to cut output in the midst of a supply glut.
Better-than-expected Japanese economic growth data, published shortly before markets opened, appeared to have little impect on trading Tuesday.
The economy grew 0.3pc in the July-Semtember quarter, according to revised figures. Just weeks after initial estimates showed that it had falled into recession, denting Tokyo’s Abenomics growth bitz.
On currency markets, the dollar was slightly weaker at 123.30 yen, from 123.36 yen in New York.
The euro fetched $1.0835, unchanged from US trade, while it slipped to 133.61 yen from 133.67yen.
