TOKYO: Japanese share prices slipped from 15-year highs on Thursday, as investors took profits on recent gainers such as financial shares, which could suffer from a fall in Japanese bond yields. The Nikkei share average, fell 0.7 percent to 19,418.38, after briefly hitting a 15-year intraday high of 19,557.17 in early trade. Yields on Japanese government bonds fell after the U.S.
Federal Reserve struck a more dovish tone on interest rates and gave a more cautious view of the world’s largest economy. Investors locked in on gains, with the market having risen more than eight percent in the past month on a variety of reasons including expectations of more buying by Japanese public investors to hopes for earnings growth and corporate governance reforms.
“The rally has been very rapid and it will be hard to bid it up further. Japanese investors will probably take profits ahead of the end financial year (on March 31,)” said Hiroshi Ono, the head of equity investment at Sumitomo Life Insurance.
Financial shares led the decline after Japanese bond yields fell. Low interest rates tend to squeeze bank revenues. Bank shares fell 1.9 percent, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group slipping 2.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group dropping 1.7 percent.
Insurers also fell 1.9 percent, with Dai-ichi Life falling 2.3 percent and T&D Holdings 2.7 percent.
The yen’s one percent gain against the dollar following the Fed’s policy meeting was also cited as a possible trigger for profit-taking, though shares of exporters were not particularly weak.
Toyota Motor rose 0.2 percent, outperforming the overall market, while Nissan Motor was down 1.2 %.
Bucking the trend, shares in Nintendo and DeNA extended their big gains for a second day after the companies announced a tie-up.
Nintendo rose 11 percent after hitting limit-up on Wednesday, while DeNA was untraded with a glut of buy orders at the day’s limit for two days in a row.
