TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened slightly lower Monday on investor caution as the dollar stayed weak after the US government shutdown.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.23 percent or 54.77 points to 23,753.29 while the broader Topix index was down 0.11 percent or 2.06 points at 1,887.68.
“Profit taking will lead on Japanese stock markets this week on the back of the partial US government shutdown,” Okasan Online Securities said in a note.
But analysts said the drops would likely only be limited.
Temporary dips will give investors an opportunity to snap up bargains, Okasan said, also noting that the US budget problems will have only a limited impact at the moment.
Investor appetite has been strong recently with the Nikkei hitting a 26-year high last week, feeding off a global rally.
In Washington, lawmakers failed to reach a stop-gap deal by Saturday — the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration — that would have kept the government running.
“Markets had been travelling last week with an expectation that a shutdown would be avoided,” said Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank.
“Now that it hasn’t, it’s hard not to believe this will accentuate the weaker US dollar theme that has been prevalent so far in 2018,” he said in a note.
The dollar was trading at 110.72 yen on Monday compared with 110.77 yen in New York on Friday before the partial shutdown took effect.
Turning to individual Japanese stocks, carmakers were lower on a stronger yen, with Toyota down 0.63 percent at 7,690 yen.
Sony rose 0.99 percent to 5,567 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported over the weekend that it planned to boost profits from its TV business in the coming years by shifting to high-end models.
Japan Display was three percent higher at 240 yen after initially soaring 9.0 percent at the open following a report by Jiji Press news agency that Apple was planning to use the Japanese firm’s new LCD in a new iPhone model.
Source: Brecorder.com
