TOKYO, Oct 29 ― Tokyo stocks opened lower today, extending falls on Wall Street on rising worries about the coronavirus, as France and Germany announced new restrictions and US cases continued to climb.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.94 per cent, or 219.02 points, to 23,199.49 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.91 per cent, or 14.68 points, at 1,597.87.
“After US shares nosedived on worries over coronavirus infections in Europe and in the US... the Japanese market is seen dropping with investors disheartened by these moves,” Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex, said in a commentary.
France announced a new month-long national lockdown and Germany imposed drastic new curbs on people's daily lives, as many epidemiologists have been warning for weeks that European governments have lost control of the latest outbreaks, making lockdowns almost inevitable.
The US has also seen a big jump in new infections across the country.
The dollar fetched ¥104.33 (RM4.15) in early Asian trade, against ¥104.31 in New York.
In Tokyo, automakers were lower with Honda declining 1.31 per cent to ¥2,448 and Toyota trading down 1.13 per cent at ¥6,817.
Sony rallied 6.07 per cent to ¥8,749 after the electronics and game giant revised up its full-year forecast citing growth in key sectors.
Hitachi was up 1.95 per cent at ¥3,616 after it booked a better-than-expected second-quarter operating profit.
Central Japan Railway dropped 2.78 per cent to ¥12,950 after it announced a worse-than-expected full-year operating loss forecast, while East Japan Railway was down 2.02 per cent at ¥5,622 after its second-quarter operating loss was worse than market expectations.
On Wall Street, the Dow ended down 3.4 per cent at 26,519.95, while the broader S&P lost 3.5 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq dived 3.7 per cent. ― AFP
