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

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.64 per cent, or 144.63 points, to 22,470.06 in early trade while the broader Topix index was down 0.43 per cent or 6.81 points at 1,564.90.

"Profit-taking is likely to lead trade in Japanese stocks as sentiment has been dampened by downturns in US shares,” Okasan Online Securities chief strategist Yoshihiro Ito said in a note.

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 fell 2.29 per cent to ¥6,048 (RM240.41) 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.

Some automakers dropped, with Mazda down 1.81 per cent at ¥649 and Suzuki off 2.16 per cent at ¥3,752.

The dollar was trading at ¥107.62 against ¥107.54 in New York yesterday afternoon. ― AFP