TOKYO, July 27 — Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index closed marginally lower today, playing catch-up after a four-day weekend, with global risk aversion on intensifying US-China tensions.

The Nikkei 225 index fell 0.16 per cent, or 35.76 points, to 22,715.85 but the broader Topix index gained 0.24 per cent, or 3.73 points, to 1,576.69.

Tokyo stocks opened sharply lower after Wall Street stocks fell for a second session in a row Friday on rising US-China tensions and worries.

"There are concerns that the US-China conflict could intensify further via a chain of retaliatory measures,” Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a note, adding resurging coronavirus cases in some US states also weighed on sentiment.

Investors bought on dips in afternoon trade, erasing some of the early losses, "but the US-China dispute weighed on the market throughout the day”, said Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities.

A strong yen — a negative for Japanese exporters — also discouraged investors from actively buying back shares, brokers said.

The dollar was trading at ¥105.63 (RM4.25) in Asian afternoon trade, compared with ¥105.95 in New York Friday afternoon and well lower than the upper half of the ¥106 range before Tokyo shut for the long weekend.

In Tokyo trade, high-tech stocks lost ground after Intel plunged on Wall Street on the announcement that its next-generation chips would be delayed by manufacturing problems. Microchip-testing equipment maker Tokyo Electron plunged 2.66 per cent to ¥28,870 with Advantest down 1.33 per cent at ¥6,650.

Sony fell 0.77 per cent to ¥8,196 but Toyota edged up 0.11 per cent to ¥6,737.

ANA Holdings gained 0.35 per cent to ¥2,373 despite the Nikkei business daily reporting the airline group was on course to report a record operating loss for the last quarter. — AFP