TOKYO, July 16 — Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday after a mixed close on Wall Street, with investors cautious amid expanding virus infections at home just days before the Olympic Games open.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.12 per cent or 317.39 points at 27,961.70 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 0.66 per cent or 12.86 points to 1,926.75.

"Japanese shares are seen lacking (upward) energy, even though the external environment is not so bad” except for the mixed US stocks close, Okasan Online Securities said in a note.

"A depressed atmosphere is dominating the Japanese market.”

Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing dropped 3.02 per cent to ¥77,190 in early trade after revising its annual projections slightly downwards as the pandemic drags on.

An expansion in the number of Covid-19 infections in the greater Tokyo area is prompting growing concerns among investors at home and abroad, Okasan said.

"Issues linked to the Tokyo Olympics that will open in a week, such as worries about whether the Games will happen without confusion and declining public support for the government over (Olympics-related) measures, are worsening investor sentiment,” it added.

The dollar fetched ¥109.82 in early Asian trade, unchanged from levels in New York late Thursday.

Toyota was up 0.45 per cent at ¥9,875 despite reports its plant in South Africa had suspended operations due to unrest in the country.

Other automakers were also higher with Honda trading up 0.46 per cent at ¥3,530 and Nissan up 1.71 per cent at ¥576.5.

Sony was down 1.84 per cent at ¥11,195, SoftBank Group was off 0.96 per cent at ¥7,462, and Toshiba was down 0.61 per cent at ¥4,885.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.2 per cent at 34,987.02 while the broad-based S&P ended down 0.3 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq closed down 0.7 per cent. — AFP