TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average touched a more than two-month low on Wednesday as China’s economic outlook weighed on risk appetite, while banking shares slid after a report on a possible downgrade of US major banks.
The Nikkei index was down 1.03% to 31,907.72 by 0220 GMT, after touching 31,784,91 earlier in the session, its lowest level since July 12.
The broader Topix had lost 0.91% to 2,269.56.
“Concerns grew over the global economy as outlook of one of the two biggest economies in the world is dim.
This has impacted Japanese shares at a time when we are not seeing much market moving cues in Japan,“ said Shigetoshi Kamada, general manager at the research department at Tachibana Securities.
A broad array of Chinese data on Tuesday highlighted intensifying pressure on the economy from multiple fronts, prompting Beijing to cut key policy rates to shore up activity.
“The report on the Fitch downgrade on US banks has also hurt risk appetite,” Kamada added.
The banking index lost nearly 2% after US peers, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America , fell after a report said ratings agency Fitch could downgrade multiple US banks.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 2.41%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group lost 1.41% and Mizuho Financial Group slipped 1.71%. Uniqlo brand owner Fast Retailing lost 1.17% to become the biggest drag on the Nikkei.
Technology investor SoftBank Group slipped 2.83% and chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron lost 0.8%.
Energy-related shares fell, with refiners falling 2.42% to become the worst performer among the 33 industry sub-indexes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Energy explorers slipped 2.1%.
Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest rose 1.02% to provide the biggest support to the Nikkei.
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