TOKYO, July 12 ― Tokyo stocks opened lower today, extending Wall Street falls on news of another Covid-19 surge in China as investors awaited US inflation data later in the week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.47 per cent, or 126.75 points, at 26,685.55 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.41 per cent, or 7.77 points, at 1,906.89.
Officials in Shanghai launched another mass-testing drive after recording about 120 new cases over the weekend, while casino centre Macau embarked on a week-long lockdown to curb its worst coronavirus outbreak yet.
Meanwhile, investors were looking ahead to tomorrow's US consumer price report for June, which will be scrutinised for clues about whether the Federal Reserve's aggressive moves to tighten monetary policy will need to be extended.
“Japanese shares are starting with falls following declines in US stocks, which were weighed down by China's Covid-19 restrictions following growing infections,” senior market analyst Toshiyuki Kanayama of Monex said in a commentary.
The dollar fetched ¥137.40 (RM4.42) in Asia, against ¥137.41 in New York and ¥137.00 in late Tokyo hours yesterday.
The yen was lower two days after Japan's ruling bloc secured a strong win in Sunday's upper house election, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and partners having secured 76 of the 125 upper house seats up for grabs.
“In the case of the yen, some in the market are seeing the increased majority of the LDP party in the weekend's upper house election as a quasi-referendum on the country’s ultra-easy monetary policy,” said Tapas Strickland, senior analyst of National Australia Bank, in a note.
“Thus, downside pressure on the yen has continued,” he said.
Among major shares in Tokyo, Sony Group was down 1.14 per cent at ¥11,250, Hitachi was off 0.94 per cent at ¥6,503, and Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing was down 0.38 per cent at ¥68,640. ― AFP
