TOKYO, Nov 8 — Tokyo stocks closed lower today as investors focused on corporate earnings reports.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.35 per cent or 104.52 points at 29,507.05 while the broader Topix index slipped 0.30 per cent or 6.20 points to close at 2,035.22.
Individual corporate earnings were weighing on the market, and “helped extend losses in afternoon trade,” Daiwa Securities said in a note.
The dollar fetched 113.57 yen in early Asian trade, against 113.40 yen in New York late Friday.
Among major shares in Tokyo, Honda dropped 3.34 per cent to 3,295 yen after it revised its annual profit forecast downwards on the chip shortage and supply-chain issues impacting automakers worldwide.
Shionogi dropped 5.73 per cent to 7,087 yen after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that a clinical trial of its pill to treat Covid-19 showed an 89 per cent reduction in chances of hospitalisation or death among adult patients at high risk of progressing to severe illness.
The Japanese pharmaceutical firm has been racing to develop its own coronavirus treatment pill.
The news had also sent Pfizer’s rivals Merck and Moderna lower in US trade.
SoftBank Group was down 0.77 per cent at 6,161 yen ahead of its earnings report.
After the market close, SoftBank Group said it had posted its first quarterly net loss in 18 months on falling investments.
Olympus soared 6.01 per cent to 2,656.5 yen after it reported a better-than-expected second quarter operating profit and revised up its full-year operating profit forecast. — AFP
