TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average fell for a second session on Friday, tracking overnight Wall Street losses as worries about tighter US Federal Reserve policy and a Chinese iPhone ban weighed on sentiment.
Tech and industrial companies led losses, with chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron dropping 4% to become the Nikkei’s biggest drag, shaving off 95 index points.
Mobile game and ad company CyberAgent dropped nearly 6% to be the Nikkei’s top percentage decliner.
The Nikkei slid about 1% to 32,681.31 by the midday break, after earlier touching a one-week low of 32,535.58. On Thursday, the stock benchmark lost 0.75%, after hitting a more than one-month peak of 33,322.45.
The index snapped an eight-day win streak on Thursday, and put the Nikkei on track for a small loss this week.
It had rallied as much as 6.55% from its low on Aug. 18 to this week’s high.
The broader Topix sagged 0.61% on Friday, also falling for a second day after marking a 33-year peak early in Thursday’s session.
A Topix index of growth stocks slumped 0.79%, nearly twice as much as the value share index.
For the week, however, the Topix remained up about 1%.
“We’re heading into the weekend, and if you consider that until Wednesday the Nikkei had seen eight straight days of gains, this is an environment ripe for some position adjustments and profit taking,” said Maki Sawada, a strategist at Nomura Securities.
Of the Nikkei’s 225 components, 183 fell, 40 rose and two were flat.
Among Nikkei industry groups, utilities - a traditional defensive sector - and real estate advanced. Overnight, a decline in new jobless claims raised speculation that the Fed might continue with monetary tightening.
Apple, its suppliers and peers with large China exposure dragged on Wall Street indexes as Beijing eyed broadening the iPhone ban to state firms and agencies.
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