Wednesday, 29 July 2015 13:07
TOKYO: Japanese stocks lost early gains to fall 0.13 percent on Wednesday, as tech firms took a hit with factory robotics giant Fanuc plunging more than 10 percent after cutting its profit forecast.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) fell 25.98 points to 20,302.91, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares ended up 0.27 percent, or 4.48 points, to 1,633.94.
The Nikkei opened 0.48 percent higher after US shares snapped a five-day losing streak with positive earnings from UPS and a big rally in petroleum-linked stocks.
But the index quickly fell into negative territory, as the dollar eased to 123.38 yen from 123.56 yen in New York.
The dollar hovered at 123.46 yen in mid-afternoon.
“Plunges in Funac and Tokyo Electron were behind the overall decline,” said Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities.
Fanuc slumped 10.66 percent to 20,700 yen after lowering its full-year profit forecast as demand for its industrial robots weakened.
Chipmaker Tokyo Electron dropped 11.43 percent to 6,590 yen as it revised downward its full-year profit estimate.
Investors were looking ahead to a policy announcement Wednesday from the US Federal Reserve that could signal the timing of an interest rate increase later this year.
The US government is also scheduled to release economic growth figures for April-June on Thursday.
“Many players are staying on the sidelines ahead of the (Fed) statement and GDP figures, while carefully monitoring Shanghai,” Horiuchi said.
On Wall Street the Dow climbed 1.08 percent, the S&P 500 gained 1.24 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 0.98 percent.
Among major Tokyo shares, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries lost 3.25 percent to 646.7 after it said American utility Southern California Edison could demand $ 7.57 billion in compensation in connection with a faulty part that led to the shutdown of its nuclear plant.
Toshiba, embroiled in a false accounting scandal, lost 3.61 percent to 365.5.
Toyota added 0.43 percent to 8,112. Panasonic gained 0.82 percent to 1,536.5.
