Tokyo's Nikkei index ends more than 3% down on tech selloff

Tokyo’s Nikkei index ends more than 3% down on tech selloff

/ 04:07 PM July 25, 2024

Tokyo's Nikkei index ends more than 3% down on tech selloff

A woman walks past an electronic board?displaying stock prices of the Nikkei 225 listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on July 25, 2024. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)

Tokyo, Japan — Tokyo’s key Nikkei index tumbled more than three percent on Thursday, marking seven straight losing sessions, after the tech-heavy Nasdaq index plunged on Wall Street.

A higher yen also weighed on the Tokyo market as the Japanese currency surged to levels unseen since early April.

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The benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 3.28 percent, or 1,285.34 points, to 37,869.51.

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It was the biggest single-day point fall since June 2016 when British voters chose to leave the European Union.

READ: Markets track tech-led plunge on Wall St, yen extends gains

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The broader Topix index shed 2.98 percent, or 83.26 points, to 2,709.86.

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Hideyuki Suzuki, senior analyst at SBI Securities, told AFP that “falls in the US tech sector — especially a plunge in Tesla shares and disappointing Alphabet earnings — as well as a stronger yen weighed on the market”.

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The Nikkei last marked seven straight daily losses in 2021, said IwaiCosmo Securities.

“Shares that had enjoyed sharp gains since the start of the year suffered sharp losses,” IwaiCosmo said.

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The yen stood at 152.83 per dollar in late afternoon after touching 152.25 yen, a level not seen since early April.

Analyst Stephen Innes said the safe-haven Japanese currency is “basking in the glow of this week’s risk-off mood”.

“Momentum traders seem to have shifted from squaring short yen positions to taking long yen bets ahead of next week’s Bank of Japan meeting,” Innes said in a newsletter.

READ: Nissan shares plunge after profit warning

Market watchers are divided on whether Japan’s central bank will raise interest rates again on July 31 as they look to normalise their long-standing ultra-loose monetary policy.

On Wall Street, the tech-rich Nasdaq dived 3.6 percent, the blue-chip Dow fell 1.3 percent and the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.3 percent.

Among major shares in Tokyo, Nissan dropped 6.98 percent to 485 yen after the Japanese automaker issued a profit warning, with CEO Makoto Uchida calling first quarter results “very challenging”.

Toyota fell 2.58 percent to 3,020.

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Semiconductor shares also fell sharply. Tokyo Electron gave up 4.82 percent to 29,010. Advantest lost 6.04 percent to 5,708.

TAGS: Japan, Nikkei

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