TOKYO: Tokyo stocks lost early gains to end the morning session barely changed in thin trade on Friday as Japan's week-long Obon holiday draws to a close.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index moved into positive territory at the start of trading with petroleum-linked shares rising on higher oil prices.
But by the break the morning rally had run out of steam, with the Nikkei edging down 0.07 percent, or 11.34 points, to 16,474.67.
The broader Topix index of all first-section shares also declined, losing 0.10 percent, or 1.34 points, to 1,289.45.
Trading was lacklustre on the Japanese market with many investors away for the week-long, though unofficial, holiday.
But the yen eased somewhat against the dollar, supporting automakers such as Toyota and Honda. A weaker yen is a plus for Japan's exporters as it boosts their overseas profitability.
The greenback changed hands at 100.20 yen against 99.94 yen Thursday in New York.
Toyota rose 2.06 percent to 6,022 yen and Honda jumped 2.09 percent to 3,050 yen.
Oil-linked stocks also rose, as Brent crude held firmly above $50 a barrel in Asian trade Friday and a bullish momentum continued.
Energy explorer Inpex surged 3.97 percent to 922.9 yen by the break and refiner JX Holdings was up 1.83 percent at 389.4 yen.
Telecommunication firms dropped, with mobile giant SoftBank down 0.26 percent at 6,438 yen and rival KDDI off 2.52 percent at 3,090 yen.
Comments
Comments are closed.