Japan shares inch lower on Brexit, US stimulus worries

TOKYO: Japan shares edged lower on Thursday, with the Nikkei pulling back from a 29-1/2-year high hit in the previous session, as the Brexit impasse and political wrangling over US stimulus weighed on investor sentiment globally.

The benchmark Nikkei share average fell 0.33% to 26,728.97, declining for a fourth session in five. The broader Topix eased 0.12% to 1,777.21.

US lawmakers approved a stopgap government funding bill on Wednesday, but were unable to sort out disagreements over aid to state and local governments that is holding up a broader spending package.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union's chief executive gave themselves until the end of the weekend to seal a new trade pact.

"There are a lot of events in Europe that are encouraging investors to take some profits off the table," said Ayako Sera, a market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

"The market has already risen so much that there may not be much room to rise further from here."

Among the Topix 30 underperformers, Daikin Industries Ltd fell 3.46% while Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd lost 2.58%.

The stocks that gained the most among the top 30 core Topix names were SoftBank Group Corp, up 6.62%, followed by Seven & i Holdings Co Ltd climbing 1.86%.

SoftBank was in the spotlight after it scored a $11.2 billion gain in the value of its stake in DoorDash Inc following the US food delivery app's blockbuster stock market debut on Wednesday.

There were 114 advancers on the Nikkei index against 100 decliners.

The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 0.54 billion, compared to the average of 1.34 billion in the past 30 days.