Tokyo shares fall as yen firms on N. Korea fear

TOKYO: Tokyo shares slipped Thursday as the yen ticked up in thin trade with investors squaring positions ahead of New Year holidays.

The Japanese currency drifted higher on lingering worries over North Korea's missile programme as well as concerns that the yen may climb higher while Tokyo players leave the market for the holiday until the latter half of next week, analysts said.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.56 percent, or 127.23 points, to 22,783.98, while the broader Topix index gave up 0.59 percent or 10.76 points to 1,819.03.

The headline indices spent most of the day zig-zagging around the previous day's close.

But they headed south toward the end of the session as the dollar began to slip against the yen, partly due to media reports that North Korea may be preparing another missile or satellite test.

The dollar stood at 112.80 yen, off from 113.19 yen seen in Tokyo Wednesday afternoon.

CNN's Japanese language edition reported in early afternoon that North Korea was showing possible signs of preparation work for another satellite or missile launch, prompting investors to lock in profits, analysts said.

"Investors started cashing in as the yen was gaining following a report on another North Korean missile launch," said Hikaru Sato, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities.

"Investors are now adjusting their positions as it's hard to tell if North Korea will launch a missile while the market is closed for New Year holidays," Sato said.

Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary: "With worries over possibility of the yen's rise during the New Year's break, some investors seemed to have closed their positions and sold shares."

The Tokyo is open on Friday but will not resume trading until Thursday.

Among major shares, Toyota dropped 0.73 percent to 7,221 yen, Sony gave up 0.55 percent to 5,092 yen and SoftBank added 0.09 percent to 8,930 yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group sank 2.23 percent to 816.9 yen.

Shortly before the opening bell, the government announced that industrial production in November improved 0.6 percent from the previous month, slightly better than the market's expectation for a 0.5 percent rise.