Tokyo's Nikkei closes down, giving up early gains

TOKYO: Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index erased early gains and closed lower on Tuesday in cautious trade as investors cashed in on recent rallies.

The Nikkei 225 index, which jumped nearly three percent last week, fell 0.16 percent, or 45.74 points, to 28,814.34.

But the broader Topix index gained 0.17 percent, or 3.20 points, to 1,926.18.

Tokyo stocks opened higher with a dearth of strong market-moving events after the US market was closed for a holiday.

But the Nikkei index fell into negative territory before noon "as more players moved to profit-taking", said Shinichi Yamamoto, a broker at Okasan Securities.

"It's difficult to take long positions ahead of key US jobs data," Yamamoto told AFP.

The dollar fetched 109.48 yen in Asian afternoon trade, against 109.46 yen in European trading hours.

SoftBank Group lost 1.13 percent to 8,162 yen with Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing down 0.30 percent at 88,900 yen.

Yonex, which provides racquets to Naomi Osaka, rose 0.32 percent to 615 yen after the tennis star withdrew from the French Open having refused to attend press conferences.

Asahi Kasei rose 0.99 percent to 1,217 yen following reports that the firm is one of the partner companies of a semiconductor research project with Taiwan's TSMC.