Tokyo stocks ended marginally lower on Monday, following a tumble on Wall Street that was fuelled by worries about Greece's future in the eurozone. The benchmark Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange slipped 18.39 points to 19,634.49, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.38 percent, or 6.01 points, to 1,582.68.
"We're likely to keep heading lower, with the fear of rising interest rates in the US and uncertainty surrounding the Chinese stock market weighing on Japanese shares," Shoji Hirakawa, chief equity strategist at Okasan Securities, told Bloomberg News. "With the cut to its deposit reserve ratio, you can sense that Chinese authorities do not want its stock market to collapse amid slowing economic growth."
China's central bank announced Sunday it would cut the level of funds that commercial banks must hold in reserve by one percentage point, the second such move this year to boost lending.
The move, effective Monday, comes days after the world's second largest economy reported its worst quarterly growth figure for six years. In forex trading Monday the dollar at 118.61 yen, down from 118.86 yen in New York, hurting exporters. US stocks tumbled on fresh worries about Greece. The Dow sank 1.54 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.13 percent and the Nasdaq lost 1.52 percent.
Greece was told Saturday to urgently deliver a detailed fiscal and debt plan to official lenders, while European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi cautioned that not reaching an agreement would take the situation into "uncharted waters."
Greece's deputy prime minister said in an interview published Sunday that Athens would stand firm in negotiations with its creditors. Both sides are seeking to do a deal before eurozone finance ministers meet on April 24.
In Tokyo share trading, mobile carrier SoftBank was down 1.05 percent at 7,583.0 yen, Toyota fell 0.42 percent to 8,262.0 yen and Fast Retailing, which operates the Uniqlo clothing chain, rose 0.65 percent to 48,075.0 yen. ANA Holdings, which operates All Nippon Airways, edged up 0.05 percent to 333.9 yen following a report that the carrier will invest 3.5 billion yen in bankrupt Skymark Airlines to keep Japan's third-biggest carrier afloat.
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