TOKYO: Japan’s Nikkei share average fell on Wednesday as profit-taking continued from the last session, while traders interpreted the tone at the latest Bank of Japan (BOJ) meeting as hawkish.
The Nikkei was down 0.68% at 36,268.15 at the midday close, further edging lower from a 34-year peak of 36,984.51 hit on Tuesday.
The index dipped as it saw selling continue from the previous afternoon session, as traders moved to lock in gains following a world-beating surge so far this year.
The broader Topix was down 0.51% at 2,529.09.
Investors were also weighing the latest communication from Japan’s central bank, which concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday.
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While the BOJ left its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged, comments including those that the likelihood of Japan sustainably achieving the bank’s 2% inflation target was gradually increasing came across as “relatively hawkish”, said Hiroshi Namioka, chief strategist at T&D Asset Management.
Growing conviction that conditions for phasing out the BOJ’s huge stimulus were falling into place suggested that an end to negative interest rates may be in sight.
“I think the stock market believed the meeting would be pretty uneventful… so the market took that (hawkish content) as a negative,” said Namioka.
The real estate sector index, which tends to be sensitive to interest rate increases, fell 2.04% to sink to the bottom of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s 33 industry sub-indexes. Real estate firm Sumitomo Realty & Development Co fell 3.40%, while Mitsui Fudosan was down 3.18%.
The banking sector, on the other hand, was the best performing sector in the morning session, gaining 2.75%, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group up 3.69% at top.
Meanwhile, chip-related shares continued to be buoyed by the tech sector’s strong performance on Wall Street, with heavyweight Nikkei stocks Tokyo Electron and Advantest gaining 0.67% and 1.32%, respectively.
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