TOKYO, July 8 ― Tokyo stocks closed lower today, with investor sentiment hit by a downswing on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.78 per cent, or 176.04 points, to end at 22,438.65 while the broader Topix index lost 0.92 per cent or 14.48 points at 1,557.23.

"Tokyo stocks were down following falls on US shares” amid surging US coronavirus cases, Okasan Online Securities chief strategist Yoshihiro Ito said in a note.

He added that there were no fresh clues but traders were eyeing how US markets will perform on Wednesday.

Global stocks mostly fell yesterday as fears sparked by fresh lockdowns and bad economic news prompted profit-taking after strong gains in the previous session.

On Wall Street, the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished down 0.9 per cent to end a streak of three straight records.

In Tokyo stocks trade today, IT investor SoftBank Group dropped 2.76 per cent to ¥6,019 (RM239.51) as the wildly popular video-sharing app TikTok announced it is pulling out of Hong Kong after a new security law.

TikTok is owned by China's ByteDance, in which SoftBank Group has invested.

Automakers were lower, with Toyota shedding 0.62 per cent to ¥6,728 and its rival Honda 1.49 per cent to ¥2,726.

Sony slid 0.95 per cent to 7,430 yen while Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing was down 0.36 per cent to ¥62,130.

The dollar was flat, trading at ¥107.53 in Asian trade against ¥107.54 in New York yesterday afternoon. ― AFP