TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 1.90 percent Thursday morning after poor US growth data, while Honda was hit by weak earnings and pharma giant Takeda sank in response to a loss warning.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange tumbled 380.80 points to 19,678.15 by the break and the broader Topix index of all first-section shares was down 1.71 percent, or 27.78 points, at 1,599.65.
Official data showed US economy nearly stalled in the first quarter, with tepid 0.2 percent annualised growth, well below the 1.0 percent projected by analysts.
Later, the US Federal Reserve said the slower growth was due “in part” to transitory factors, such as poor weather and a west coast dockworkers strike, and that the economy should resume expanding at a “moderate pace”.
That suggested the Fed still expects to begin a slow series of rate rises in the coming months, though not likely in June as many analysts had been expecting until recently.
On Wall Street the Dow shed 0.41 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.37 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.63 percent.
In Asian forex trade the dollar was at 118.80 yen, against 119.02 yen in New York.
