TOKYO: Tokyo s benchmark index pared early losses to end Monday morning flat, following a tumble on Wall Street that was fuelled by worries about Greece s future in the eurozone.
The Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange edged down 0.03 percent, or 5.68 points to 19,647.20 by the break, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.30 percent, or 4.70 points, to 1,583.99.
“We re likely to keep heading lower, with the fear of rising interest rates in the US and uncertainty surrounding the Chinese stock market weighing on Japanese shares,” Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News.
“With the cut to its deposit reserve ratio, you can sense that Chinese authorities do not want its stock market to collapse amid slowing economic growth..”
China s central bank announced Sunday it would cut the level of funds that commercial banks must hold in reserve by one percentage point, the second such move this year to boost lending.
The move, effective Monday, comes days after the world s second largest economy reported its worst quarterly growth figure for six years.
In forex trading Monday, a string yen hit Japanese exporters, The dollar was at 118.88 yen against 118.86 yen in New York but down from 119.00 yen in Tokyo earlier Friday.
US stocks tumbled on fresh worries about Greece. The Dow sank 1.54 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.13 percent and the Nasdaq lost 1.52 percent.
Greece was told Saturday to urgently deliver a detailed fiscal and debt plan to official lenders, while European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi cautioned that not reaching an agreement would take the situation into “uncharted waters.”
