ZCZC
BCN-20
STOCKS-MARKET-JAPAN-CLOSE
Tokyo stocks close lower on trade worries
TOKYO, Sept 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks closed lower on Monday,
weighed down by investor caution over US trade tensions with Canada and
China.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.69 percent or 157.77 points to close
at 22,707.38, while the broader Topix index ended down 0.87 percent or 15.04
points at 1,720.31.
After US markets closed mixed on Friday, news emerged that US-Canada talks
ended without an agreement on rewriting the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), though discussions will resume this week.
This replaced optimism at the start of last week following news the US and
Mexico had agreed a revised NAFTA trade pact.
Investor sentiment has also been hit by speculation that President Donald
Trump’s administration will impose tariffs on a further $200 billion of
Chinese imports as soon as this week.
“The negative impact from the US-China trade war is bigger for China than
for the US,” said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities.
“Japanese corporate performance has been sound and seems to have received
no major negative impact” from the trade frictions, but some knock-on effects
such as a decline in orders from China-related companies has been observed,
he added.
In Asia, the dollar stood at 111.91 yen on Monday compared with 111.02 yen
in New York on Friday afternoon.
Shares in automakers dropped on the trade concerns, with Toyota losing
1.64 percent to 6,816 yen and Honda off 1.09 percent at 3,256 yen.
China-related shares were lower, with industrial robots maker Fanuc
falling 1.97 percent to 21,345 yen and construction machine maker Komatsu
ending down 0.60 percent at 3,142 yen.
Renesas Electronics dived 6.42 percent to 786 yen after weekend reports
that it was in the final stages of inking a six-billion-dollar deal to buy a
US microchip maker.
BSS/AFP/HR/1325