Tokyo stocks open down on stronger yen after G7 finance summit
Their weekend gathering in Japan came ahead of a G7 summit this week in the country to be attended by US President Barack Obama and other leaders.
Host Japan was keen to get its G7 counterparts to agree that fiscal stimulus is the best way to kickstart global growth, but Germany and Britain were cool to the idea.
“We’re in a wait-and-see mood,” Yoshinori Ogawa, a market strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News.
Upcoming events such as the summit and a planned speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen “may move the markets, so I expect (a lack of direction) today”, he added.
Yellen is scheduled to speak on Friday at Harvard University.
In early trading, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 1.09 percent, or 183.19 points, to 16,553.16, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares also dropped 1.09 percent, or 14.61 points, to 1,328.79.
On forex markets, the dollar fell against the yen after the G7 finance ministers refrained from giving Japan an opening on possible intervention to stem the rise of its currency.
In a statement which presented a clear rebuff to Tokyo, the group “underscored the importance of all countries refraining from competitive devaluation”.
On Monday, the greenback fell to 109.84 yen from 110.15 yen Friday in New York.
Japanese automakers were hit by the stronger currency — a minus for their profitability — with Toyota, Mazda and Honda off more than one percent each in early deals.
Toyota slipped 1.72 percent to 5,466 yen and Mazda dropped 1.08 percent to 1,777 yen.
Honda, meanwhile, fell 1.01 percent to 2,918 yen, while Nissan was 0.14 percent off at 1,044 yen.
Energy stocks tanked after oil prices fell again, with major explorer Inpex slumping 2.45 percent to 835.9 yen.
The three main indexes on Wall Street closed with solid gains on Friday, with the Dow up 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 jumping 0.6 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq climbing 1.2 percent.
– AFP
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