Tokyo stocks down at break

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks edged down Tuesday morning as the Japanese earnings season gets under way in earnest this week while traders look ahead to a policy meeting by the US Federal Reserve.

While the Fed's board is not expected to announce any movement on monetary policy Wednesday, its post-meeting statement will be studied for clues about its interest rate plans and its timetable to winding up its bond holdings.

The gathering concludes days before second-quarter growth for the world's top economy is released.

"I don't expect anything special from the (Fed), but would like to check for any reaction from the currency market," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.13 percent, or 25.56 points, to 19,950.11 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was down 0.25 percent, or 4.06 points, at 1,617.51.

The dollar was trading at 111.10 yen on Tuesday, well up from the levels below 111 yen earlier Monday but well down from close to 112 yen towards the end of last week.

In stock trading, Toyota rose 0.50 percent to 6,110 yen while Nissan was down 0.04 percent at 1,129.5 yen.

Electronics giant Panasonic slipped 0.10 percent to 1,494 yen and Sony lost 0.46 percent to 4,464 yen.

Mobile operator NTT DoCoMo fell 1.25 percent to 2,590 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported its April-June operating profit fell nearly 10 percent owing to tough price competition.