Tokyo stocks ended lower on Wednesday, as the safe haven yen rose against the dollar after Donald Trump's administration was rocked by the resignation of top economic advisor Gary Cohn. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.77 percent, or 165.04 points to close at 21,252.72 while the broader Topix index was down 0.72 percent, or 12.34 points at 1,703.96.
The news that Cohn quit in apparent protest at Trump's decision to levy global steel tariffs came after the US market close. Therefore, worries over its impact "had to be factored in firstly in currency trading... and then in the Japanese stocks market," senior market advisor Kyoko Amemiya of SBI Securities told AFP. The "unclear situation" surrounding Cohn outweighed positive sentiment from the easing of North Korean tensions, Rikiya Takebe, senior strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary.
The dollar fell to 105.57 yen in Asian trade, from 106.17 yen in New York late Tuesday, weighing on Japanese exporters. Wednesday's fall in the Tokyo market came after US stocks finished higher partly due to expectations for a detente in the Korean peninsula and receding worries over a global trade war. Looking ahead, investors are seen reluctant to take any firm positions ahead of key events this week including the US jobs data due late Friday, Amemiya of SBI Securities noted.
In Tokyo share trading, Toyota fell 1.24 percent to 6,797 yen and Panasonic was down 0.80 percent at 1,611 yen. Kobe Steel plunged 7.38 percent to 1,028 yen, a day after its chief executive quit over a fake data scandal. Its bigger rival Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal dropped 2.18 percent to 2,347 yen.
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