Tokyo shares open lower on Ukraine, Wall Street selloff

TOKYO: Tokyo shares opened lower Friday as investors' risk appetite waned further on rising tensions over Ukraine that drove down Wall Street shares.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.19 percent or 324.64 points to 26,908.23 while the broader Topix index lost 1.01 percent or 19.50 points to 1,911.74.

The dollar was 114.83 yen compared with 114.91 yen seen on Thursday in New York.

The weak start came as the Nikkei took cues from Wall Street, where the Dow gave up 1.78 percent and Nasdaq dropped 2.88 percent.

Hong Kong stocks end on strong note

"US stocks did not stand a chance as risk aversion violently returned on growing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine," Edward Moya of OANDA wrote in a note.

"Wall Street is feeling very jittery as it looks to the left and sees intensifying geopolitical risks with the Ukraine situation and then it looks to the right and sees the potential for aggressive Fed tightening."

Further driving down global investors' spirits were reports that US President Joe Biden was preparing an executive order to regulate digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.

It drove down bitcoin, and investors grew more cautious, Okasan Online Securities said in a note.

"Overall, risk-off sentiment has gripped the market," the brokerage said.

After weakness in early trade, however, the market was expected to move in a narrow range as "there is no way to tell what kind of news might emerge over Ukraine during the weekend," Okasan said.

"It seems difficult to build either sell or buy positions," it said.

Shortly before the market opened, the government said Japan's core consumer prices in January rose 0.2 percent compared with a year ago, driven up by rising energy prices.

The level remains far below the Bank of Japan's target to achieve two percent inflation.

Among major shares, Toyota fell 0.35 percent to 2,153 yen. Sony Group gave up 2.01 percent to 11,915 yen. SoftBank Group dropped 2.17 percent to 5,006 yen.

Uniqlo-operator Fast Retailing also fell 0.78 percent to 63,200 yen.