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Roundup: Tokyo stocks close lower on profit-taking amid concerns of overheating
TOKYO, Feb 4,2021 (BSS/XINHUA) – Tokyo stocks closed lower Thursday as investors opted to take profits following concerns the market may be overheating after a three-day winning streak.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 304.55 points, or 1.06 percent, from Wednesday to close the day at 28,341.95.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 5.97 points, or 0.32 percent, to finish at 1,865.12.
Local brokers said that chip-related issues came under selling pressure as investors opted to lock in gains amid concerns of overheating as any firms henceforth reporting favorable earnings or outlooks would have likely already been factored in.
“Chip-related shares rose too much before the earnings season started but now all the good news are out,” Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, was quoted as saying.
Concerns over Tokyo’s continued plans to host this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics were stoked by sexist remarks made by the president of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, Yoshiro Mori, which provoked a harsh backlash on social media and fueled concerns about his resignation.
On Wednesday, Mori complained that women’s tendency is to talk too much and become rivals in group settings.
He said that when one female member raises her hand to speak, “everyone ends up saying something,” with his remarks made with reference to adding more females to the male-dominated Japanese Olympic Committee board.
“Mr. Mori is the person who has insisted the Tokyo Games go ahead as scheduled. Short-term investors sold stock futures as they feared the possibility of the games’ postponement or cancellation will rise if he resigns,” Fujito was quoted as saying.
By the close of play, service, chemical and machinery-oriented issues comprised those that declined the most.
Among chip-related issues, Advantest dropped 3.9 percent, while Disco fell 4.3 percent. Taiyo Yuden lost 2.5 percent, while Sumco and TDK retreated 4.2 and 3.6 percent respectively.
Olympics-related issues lost ground, with advertising agency Dentsu shedding 0.1 percent by the close.
Bucking the downward trend, Sony jumped 9.5 percent, to become the Nikkei’s biggest gainer, after raising its full-year profit outlook the previous day.
Transportation issues continued finding favor, with Japan Airlines climbing 3.2 percent, while Japan Railways added 1.5 percent.
On the main section on Thursday, 1,344.43 million shares changed hands, dropping from Wednesday’s volume of 1,374.38 million shares.
Issues that rose outpaced those that fell by 1,116 to 984 on the First Section, while 91 ended the day unchanged.
The turnover on the penultimate trading day of the week came to 2,804.58 (26.64 billion U.S. dollars).
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