Tokyo stocks close lower

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed lower on Monday as investors focused on corporate earnings reports.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.35 percent or 104.52 points at 29,507.05 while the broader Topix index slipped 0.30 percent or 6.20 points to close at 2,035.22. Individual corporate earnings were weighing on the market, and “helped extend losses in afternoon trade,” Daiwa Securities said in a note.

The dollar fetched 113.57 yen in early Asian trade, against 113.40 yen in New York late Friday.

Among major shares in Tokyo, Honda dropped 3.34 percent to 3,295 yen after it revised its annual profit forecast downwards on the chip shortage and supply-chain issues impacting automakers worldwide.

Shionogi dropped 5.73 percent to 7,087 yen after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that a clinical trial of its pill to treat Covid-19 showed an 89 percent reduction in chances of hospitalisation or death among adult patients at high risk of progressing to severe illness.