TOKYO: Stocks lost further ground on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday, weighed down by the yen’s ascent.
The 225-issue Nikkei average fell 65.71 points, or 0.34 percent, to close at 19,455.88. On Friday, the key market gauge gave up 68.55 points. The Tokyo market was closed on Monday for a national holiday.
The Topix index of all first-section issues ended down 2.43 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,563.42, after shedding 6.84 points on Friday.
Stocks met with selling from the start of Tuesday’s trading, following the Dow Jones industrial average’s continued drop in New York on Monday and the dollar’s fall against the yen on the back of lower U.S. long-term interest rates.
The Nikkei average briefly shed more than 180 points in the early morning session, led by losses in insurers, banks and exporters.
The major market yardstick trimmed its loss later in the morning thanks to buying on dips. But it remained weak for the rest of the day.
Instead, the latest G-20 statement said, “We are working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies.”
With investors closely watching the pace of interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. long-term rate movements, the market could be affected by possible remarks by policymakers of the country, SMBC Nikko’s Ota said.
Despite the weakness of the Nikkei and Topix indexes, rising issues outnumbered falling ones 991 to 862 on the TSE’s first section, while 156 issues were unchanged.
Volume slumped to 1.597 billion shares from Friday’s 2.013 billion shares.
In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key June contract on the Nikkei average was down 40 points at 19,310.
