Tokyo shares open 0.40pc lower

TOKYO: Tokyo shares opened 0.40 percent lower on Thursday after New York stocks extended their losing streak to a sixth straight trading day.

The benchmark Nikkei index opened down 37.75 points at 9,411.71.

In New York on Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 21.87 points (0.18 percent) to finish at 12,048.94, ending in negative territory for the sixth time in a row amid fresh signs of trouble for the US economic recovery.

Shares in Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which lost 7.40 percent to hit a new all-time closing low of 200 yen Wednesday, kept tumbling. They were down 9.0 percent at 182 in the first few minutes of trading.

The euro firmed to $1.4599 in early Tokyo trade from $1.4575 in New York late Wednesday.

The dollar fetched 79.85 yen, almost flat from New York.

Currency rates hardly moved after Japan revised upward its first-quarter GDP reading to an annualised 3.5 percent contraction from a 3.7 percent shrinkage, confirming the economy fell into recession after the March 11 quake.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011