TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average surrendered early gains to close lower on Friday as sharp declines in Fast Retailing led technology stocks to erase their gains.
The Nikkei slipped 0.19% to 39,569.68 after rising as much as 0.8% earlier in the session. The index fell 0.6% this week.
The broader Topix rose 0.39% to 2,823.24.
Fast Retailing tanked 6.93% after the Uniqlo brand owner said on Thursday higher US tariffs would start impacting its US operations significantly from later this year and that it plans to raise prices to mitigate the blow.
“Investors were worried about Fast Retailing’s outlook for the next fiscal year. Still, gains of technology stocks supported the index,” said Kentaro Hayashi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
The market also sold stocks as soon as the Nikkei approached the psychologically important level of 40,000, strategists said.
Chip-related Advantest and Tokyo Electron rose 0.71% and 0.9%, respectively, to track a 0.75% gain in the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index overnight.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.