Tokyo stocks open lower on worries over virus, Olympics

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday after a mixed close on Wall Street, with investors cautious amid expanding virus infections at home just days before the Olympic Games open.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.12 percent or 317.39 points at 27,961.70 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 0.66 percent or 12.86 points to 1,926.75.

"Japanese shares are seen lacking (upward) energy, even though the external environment is not so bad" except for the mixed US stocks close, Okasan Online Securities said in a note.

****"A depressed atmosphere is dominating the Japanese market."****

Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing dropped 3.02 percent to 77,190 yen in early trade after revising its annual projections slightly downwards as the pandemic drags on.

Tokyo stocks open lower with eyes on China data

An expansion in the number of Covid-19 infections in the greater Tokyo area is prompting growing concerns among investors at home and abroad, Okasan said.

"Issues linked to the Tokyo Olympics that will open in a week, such as worries about whether the Games will happen without confusion and declining public support for the government over (Olympics-related) measures, are worsening investor sentiment," it added.

The dollar fetched 109.82 yen in early Asian trade, unchanged from levels in New York late Thursday.

Toyota was up 0.45 percent at 9,875 yen despite reports its plant in South Africa had suspended operations due to unrest in the country.

Other automakers were also higher with Honda trading up 0.46 percent at 3,530 yen and Nissan up 1.71 percent at 576.5 yen.

Sony was down 1.84 percent at 11,195 yen, SoftBank Group was off 0.96 percent at 7,462 yen, and Toshiba was down 0.61 percent at 4,885 yen.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended up 0.2 percent at 34,987.02 while the broad-based S&P ended down 0.3 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq closed down 0.7 percent.