TOKYO: Japanese shares tumbled on Tuesday, dragged down by technology stocks tracking overnight Wall Street losses, while domestic cyclical stocks also fell on concerns around the nation's worsening situation of the pandemic.
The Nikkei share average tumbled 2.52% to 28,774.45 by 0158 GMT, while the broader Topix lost 1.84% to 1,916.40.
Technolgy heavyweights fell, with SoftBank Group tumbling 6.01%, Tokyo Electron falling 4.08%, TDK losing 5.8%.
Shionogi & Co inched up only 0.1% despite a local media report that said the drug maker may start supplying COVID-19 vaccines later this year.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, up 1 %, was the largest percentage gainer among the top 30 core Topix names, followed by KDDI Corp, inching up 0.26%.
SoftBank Group was the worst performer among the Topix 30 names, followed by Daiichi Sankyo losing 4.07%.
There were 14 advancers on the Nikkei index against 210 decliners.
Wall Street closed lower on Monday as inflation concerns drove investors away from market-leading growth stocks in favor of cyclicals.
The prolonged pandemic added to the negative sentiment, with calls for expanding the state of emergency, which covers major prefectures such as Tokyo and Osaka. Some prefectural governors called for stronger emergency measures to be put in place nationwide, the Kyodo news agency reported.
"Atmosphere in the market is bad," said Shoichi Arisawa, general manager of the investment research department at IwaiCosmo Securities.
"Even domestic cyclical shares, which should be bought on the day like today, were being sold. Investors could not find any reasons to buy Japanese stocks at a time when the pandemic in Japan shows little signs for slowing down."
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