Friday, 07 August 2015 09:52
TOKYO: Tokyo stocks lost 0.28 percent Friday morning after falls on Wall Street, as investors awaited more Japanese corporate earnings and a Bank of Japan policy decision.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 57.70 points to 20,606.74 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares was down 0.35 percent, or 5.81 points, to 1,667.77.
More than 250 firms on the Topix index report earnings on Friday.
After markets closed for the morning break, the BoJ said it would stand pat on fresh policy measures.
Investors are also looking to the Federal Reserve and official US jobs data later Friday for the latest clues about the timing of an interest rate hike, widely expected by September or December.
“US stocks are falling for six consecutive days as vigilance (is) intensifying over a rate hike in September ahead of jobs data,” Tsutomu Yamada, market analyst at Kabu.com Securities, told Bloomberg News.
In share trading, camera maker Konica Minolta slumped 9.79 percent to 1,419 yen after its latest quarterly profit was below analyst estimates.
Rival Nikon jumped 4.89 percent to 1,585 yen after raising its profit forecast.
Mobile carrier SoftBank added 4.48 percent to 7,460 yen after it said it will spend 120 billion yen ($ 962 million) on buying back shares.
Uniqlo clothing chain operator Fast Retailing slipped 1.03 percent to 56,630 yen, while drugmaker Takeda fell 0.66 percent to 6,299 yen.
On currency markets, the dollar fetched 124.80 yen against 124.73 yen in New York late Thursday.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq slipped 1.62 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.69 percent, while the S&P 500 shed 0.78 percent.
