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Tokyo stocks down on profit-taking
TOKYO, Oct 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo stocks lost ground on Thursday on
profit-taking after climbing to a 27-year high earlier this week, with a drop
in Hong Kong also weighing on investor sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.56 percent, or 135.34 points, to close at
23,975.62 while the broader Topix was down 0.09 percent, or 1.54 points, at
1,801.19.
Hikaru Sato, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities, said it was no
surprise to see profit-taking emerge “after stocks rose quite fast.”
“A cool-down period is expected to continue for a while,” he told AFP,
adding that a decline in Hong Kong shares also helped erase early gains.
The Nikkei index opened higher as investors welcomed a weak yen and a
record close on Wall Street.
A trove of strong US economic data on Wednesday elevated the Dow to a
second straight all-time high and lifted 10-year US Treasury yields to a
seven-year peak.
The yen, which hovered around multi-month lows against the dollar Thursday
morning, traded at 114.40 yen in afternoon trade against 114.46 yen in New
York on Wednesday afternoon.
In individual trade, Toyota rose 0.58 percent to 7,005 yen and SoftBank
gained 1.31 percent to 11,200 yen after they announced plans to create a
joint venture to provide “new mobility services” including autonomous
vehicles for services such as meal deliveries.
Honda, which yesterday announced a tie-up with General Motors to develop
autonomous vehicles, gained 0.23 percent to 3,346 yen.
Nomura jumped 1.44 percent to 554 yen following a news report that it is
considering Paris for its post-Brexit EU lending hub.
BSS/XINHUA/HR/1300