TOKYO: Tokyo shares fell Wednesday after three days of gains, with tech firms slipping and bankrupt airbag giant Takata plunging as the stock hurtles toward a delisting from Japan's premier exchange.
The Tokyo market picked up a weak lead from Wall Street where shares fell as a key vote on US President Donald Trump's health care reform was delayed.
Japanese tech shares also faced selling pressure after the EU slapped a record 2.4-billion-euro fine on Google for illegally favouring its shopping service in search results. The announcement dragged down US tech shares.
"With US technology shares declining, investors are likely to start worrying about a drop in the thus far high- performing growth stocks," Mitsushige Akino, a Tokyo-based executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, told Bloomberg News.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.47 percent, or 94.68 points, to 20,130.41, while the Topix index of all first-section issues slipped 0.29 percent, or 4.65 points, to 1,614.37.
Crisis-hit airbag maker Takata nose-dived 68.18 percent to 35 yen (31 cents), after the volatile shares went untraded for most of Tuesday's session -- as sell orders swamped buy orders.
On Monday, Takata, at the centre of the world's biggest auto safety recall, announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection and would be bought by US auto parts maker Key Safety Systems for $1.58 billion.
The now almost worthless stock will be delisted from the Tokyo bourse next month.
Toshiba fell 1.84 percent to 287.6 yen as it said it has yet to reach a deal to sell its prized memory chip business to a consortium of US, South Korean and state-backed Japanese investors.
The sale, reportedly worth some 2.0 trillion yen, is seen as crucial for the cash-strapped company to plug massive losses at its US nuclear division, Westinghouse Electric.
Some Japanese high-tech shares sagged. Hitachi lost 0.82 percent to 681 yen, chip-testing machine maker Advantest dipped 4.04 percent to 1,948 yen, while Nintendo fell 3.69 percent to 38,870 yen.
On currency markets, the dollar fetched 112.35 yen, hovering near 112.33 yen in New York but up from 111.71 yen in Tokyo earlier Tuesday.
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