TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday on profit-taking after sharp rallies in the previous session, as investors closely watched this week's corporate earnings.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.16 percent or 47.70 points at 29,058.31 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.05 percent or 1.08 points to 2,017.32.
The Japanese market started with declines "in reaction to sharp gains in the previous session after US shares ended with modest increases," said Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst of Monex.
Investors are closely watching earnings reports in Japan, which are more important factors than GDP growth figures due this week in the US and Europe or Japan's general elections on Sunday, analysts said.
The dollar fetched 114.15 yen in early Asian trade, barely changed from 114.14 yen in New York late Tuesday.
Airline ANA Holdings was down 1.30 percent at 2,645 yen, after a report said it was expected to book an operating loss of around 110 billion yen ($960 million) for the April-September half.
Its rival Japan Airlines was down 1.50 percent at 2,419 yen.
Canon was down 5.81 percent at 2,568.5 yen after it cut its full-year operating profit forecast.
Hitachi was down 0.69 percent at 6,728 yen ahead of its earnings report due after market close.
On Wall Street, the Dow ended up less than 0.1 percent at 35,756.88 while the broad-based S&P 500 finished up 0.2 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq closed up 0.1 percent.
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