TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 0.43 percent Wednesday morning after ending their longest winning streak in 27 years the previous day, hit by losses on Wall Street and a firmer yen.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange slipped 88.28 points to 20,454.91 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares eased 0.31 percent, or 5.18 points, to 1,669.03.
The benchmark index on Tuesday snapped its longest rally since a 13-day run in February 1988 during Japan’s stock market bubble.
In forex trading, the dollar weakened to 123.93 yen in mid-day trade from 124.09 yen late Tuesday in New York.
In Tokyo trading the previous day, the greenback briefly climbed to 125.05 yen — its highest level since December 2002 — before settling back to 124.63 yen.
Over the past few weeks “the dollar staged a massive rally on the back of Federal Reserve officials’ comments, but now we’re seeing that move begin to reverse,” Hiroichi Nishi, a manager at SMBC Nikko Securities, told Bloomberg News.
“Given the stronger yen, as well as big events at the end of the week, including US payrolls and Greece, stocks today could fall and then tread water.”
Markets are watching the Friday deadline for Greece to repay more than 300 million euros ($328 million) to the International Monetary Fund.
