TOKYO, April 2 — Tokyo stocks fell for a fourth consecutive session today following a rout on Wall Street, with investor sentiment weighed down by concerns about a rising number of coronavirus cases in Japan.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 1.37 per cent, or 246.69 points, to close at 17,818.72 while the broader Topix index was down 1.57 per cent, or 21.21 points, at 1,329.87.
“Concerns are growing as infection cases are rising in Japan as well as in the US and Europe,” said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities.
“Japan at one point was considered a nation that was succeeding in containing infections, but the recent acceleration has prompted serious concerns,” he said.
“We assume that only the Bank of Japan has been buying massively this week.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on people to stay alert against the outbreak, saying: “We are holding out but if we loosen our caution even a bit, it could lead to a rapid increase in infections.”
Abe also reiterated plans to unveil a fresh economic package next week, telling parliament: “In order to bring the Japanese economy back on a steady recovery track, we will take bold, unprecedented action.”
Wall Street stocks were battered yesterday as the human and economic toll from the coronavirus continued to rise.
President Donald Trump has warned of “hard days” ahead and health experts said the US death toll could reach 240,000.
Investors have braced themselves for weak figures in key US jobs data due out tomorrow.
The dollar was trading at ¥107.19 (RM4.36) in Asian afternoon trade against ¥107.13 yesterday afternoon in New York.
In Tokyo, SoftBank Group jumped 2.53 per cent to ¥3,768 after the global tech investor formally said it had terminated a tender offer worth up to US$3 billion to acquire shares in US firm WeWork.
Fast Retailing tumbled 2.40 per cent to ¥40,940 as the Uniqlo clothing chain operator remained under selling pressure over the outbreak.
Nissan plunged 5.54 per cent to ¥323.4 and Toyota was down 0.69 per cent at ¥6,287.
Nintendo dropped 1.47 per cent to ¥41,330 but Sony gained 1.50 per cent to ¥6,322. — AFP
