TOKYO, April 19 — Tokyo stocks were under pressure this morning as investors turned cautious after Britain’s shock decision to call a snap general election added to a raft of global uncertainties.

In a surprise announcement, May called for an early general election on June 8 as Britain prepares for delicate negotiations on leaving the European Union by 2019.

Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was flat, inching down 1.05 points to 18,417.54 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues edged up 0.05 per cent, or 0.68 points, to 1,472.21.

The political calendar was already heavy in 2017 with upcoming votes in France and Germany having major implications for the eurozone. The first round of the French presidential election is scheduled for Sunday.

"The market dislikes uncertainty,” said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.

"Investors had already been a little on edge over the French presidential election, and now the UK general election is creating further uncertainty in Europe,” he told Bloomberg News.

The uncertainty stoked buying of the yen, which is widely seen as a safe investment, but a stronger currency is a negative for Japanese shares as it dents exporters’ profitability.

In forex markets, the dollar was changing hands at 108.52 yen, weakening from 109.05 yen in Asia yesterday.

News of the British election pushed up the pound to US$1.2905 (RM5.69), its highest level since October 2016, on hopes that it could result in a strong mandate for May and boost her negotiating power with the EU. In Asia, sterling fetched US$1.2822.

Shares of Hitachi, which has operations in Britain, dropped 0.56 per cent to 575.8 yen while Nissan, which has two plants there, slipped 0.24 per cent to sit at 1,016.5 yen at the break.

Bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial fell 0.71 per cent to 651.2 yen while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose 0.44 per cent to 3,864 yen.

Toshiba tacked on 1.55 per cent to sit at 202.2 yen after Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported the loss-hit industrial giant plans to spin off infrastructure and other major operations into separate companies in a bid to quicken management decisions.

The Asahi newspaper separately reported Japan’s industry ministry was considering having government-backed firms make a joint bid for Toshiba’s memory chip business with US semiconductor company Broadcom, amid concerns about the sensitive technology going abroad. — AFP