Tokyo shares open lower on Wall Street loss, virus fears

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday after falls on Wall Street on continued jitters over the spread of the pandemic and ahead of key US Senate runoff elections.

The bellwether Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.34 percent, or 92.73 points, to 27,165.65 in early trade, while the broader Topix index fell 0.26 percent, or 0.26 percent to 1,789.91.

The dollar stood at 103.16 yen, nearly flat from 103.14 seen Monday in New York.

The weak start of the Tokyo market stems from overnight falls on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones index gave up 1.3 percent as market participants watched the all-important Georgia Senate runoff elections that will decide the balance of power in Congress.

Also concerning investors was the outlook for the pandemic as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a sweeping lockdown to slow the spread of the disease.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also announced Monday that he was moving to issue a localised state of emergency for the greater Tokyo area, which continues to see record daily infection figures.

Suga said the next state of emergency will be "limited" and "focused" in its scope, unlike the nation's last nationwide state of emergency last year that kept most consumers at home across the country and brought the economy to a halt.

"Still, the greater Tokyo area accounts for a third of Japan's GDP, and damage to the economy is inevitable," Okasan Online said in a note.

"The services sector especially will feel more pain with a further drop in travel demand and falls in dining demand due to a renewed focus on teleworking," the brokerage said.

However, technical charts continue to indicate longer-term optimism, it added.

Among major shares, SoftBank Group lost 0.89 percent to 7,937 yen. Nintendo fell 0.88 percent to 64,970 yen. Airline ANA Holdings fell 0.90 percent to 2,212.

Panasonic surged 2.35 percent to 1,220. Sony added 0.57 percent to 10,495.