TOKYO: Tokyo stocks booked their third consecutive weekly loss Friday, as risk-off sentiment related to the US central bank’s dovish stance on monetary policy and jitters over a possible Greek debt default outweighed late bargain hunting.
The Nikkei Stock Average ended up 0.9 per cent at 20,174.24 Friday, but still closed the week down 1.1 per cent. The slide reduced its gain for year to 15.6 per cent.
Participation levels were relatively modest, but short-covering and bargain-buying helped the index to avoid an 11th loss in the last 14 sessions.
The prior day’s selloff, which took the Nikkei Stock Average under the psychologically important 20,000 mark for the first time in a month, set the market up for a technical rebound, especially as the dollar remained stable around the Y123.00 mark.
“The level of interest in the stock market is not so strong that the 20,000 mark can necessarily be counted on as a firm level of support,” says Naoki Fujiwara, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management.
“Much of what is moving the Japanese market is also moving the rest of the world, although I suspect that a worst-case scenario for Greece (a default and euro zone exit) has already been at least partially priced in,” he adds.
