TOKYO: Tokyo stocks gave up early gains to end the morning session down on Tuesday, with investors locking in profits after the benchmark gauge ended the previous day at a nine-month high.
The Nikkei has soared more than eight percent since Wednesday's hammering, which came in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump's shock victory in the US presidential election.
The gains have come on the back of a surge in the dollar against the yen -- lifting exporters -- as dealers bet Trump's planned stimulus and tax cuts will fan inflation and force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates more than expected.
A day after hitting a five-month high of 108.54 yen, the greenback dipped back slightly in Asia to 108.13 yen.
With the yen recovering from its five-month low, "investors appear to be moving to pocket profits", said Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chibagin Asset Management Co.
"The focus is on how the US economy will move based on what US policies will turn out to be, but this will take time," he told Bloomberg News.
The key Nikkei 225 index, which closed at its best level since early February on Monday, was down 0.15 percent or 26.11 points at 17,646.51 at the break.
But the broader Topix index of all first-section issues was up 0.02 percent, or 0.28 points, at 1,400.28.
Ad agency Dentsu tumbled 7.37 percent to 5,150 yen after its third-quarter results missed expectations, while Sony sank 2.27 percent to 3,187 yen and mobile giant SoftBank was 0.56 percent lower at 6,538 yen.
However, Honda was up 0.42 percent at 3,101 yen and Toyota gained 0.36 percent to 6,060 yen.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group jumped 4.32 percent to 643.7 yen after the megabank announced a share buyback.
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