Japan's Nikkei fell on Thursday as weak US and Chinese economic data and Sino-US trade frictions soured sentiment, while banks tumbled on weak earnings reports. The Nikkei share average ended down 0.6% at 21,062.98 points. Adding to worries about the trade war which has already dragged down the Japanese market by 5.4% this month, the US Commerce Department said on Wednesday it is putting China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and 70 affiliates on its so-called "Entity List."
The broader Topix fell 0.4% to 1,537.55, with most cyclical sectors in the red. Domestic-demand sectors such as utility, construction and railway attracted buyers. Exporters fell, with Fanuc sliding 1.3%, Murata Manufacturing shedding 5.2% and Advantest Corp tumbling 6.3%.
Mega banks were sold, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropping 3.6%, after the bank reported an 11.8% fall in its net profit for the last fiscal year ended March 2019. Mizuho Financial Group shed 1.5%, after its net profit tumbled 83% to 96.6 billion yen for the last fiscal year, though it forecast a net profit of 470 billion yen for this fiscal year, more than four-fold recovery on the year.
Japan Display declined 3.2% after it posted a ninth straight quarterly loss. Its net loss for the three months ended March was 98.6 billion yen, versus a 147 billion yen loss a year earlier.
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