Tokyo stocks fell 1.23 percent Thursday, following declines on Wall Street which reacted to poor US jobs data and a warning from the Federal Reserve chief about overheating in US stock markets. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 239.64 points to end at 19,291.99 after a three-day holiday, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was down 0.69 percent, or 10.97 points, to 1,574.64.
Fed chair Janet Yellen, speaking at a Washington conference, warned that "equity market valuations at this point generally are quite high", as payroll firm ADP reported the US added just 169,000 private-sector jobs in April, the second month in a row under 200,000. "The US economy was expected to bottom out in March and recover in the second quarter, but so far the figures for April have been poor," said Mitsushige Akino, an executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management. More than 300 Japanese firms report their latest financial results on Thursday and Friday, including videogames giant Nintendo and automaker Toyota.
In Tokyo share trading, Nintendo fell 2.54 percent to 19,740.0 yen before it announces full-year earnings later in the day. Market heavyweight Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, fell 1.01 percent to 47,105.0 yen, Toyota was down 1.21 percent to 8,214.0 yen while Sony slipped 0.52 percent to 3,609.5 yen. Bucking the down trend, Dai-ichi Life Insurance jumped 3.56 percent to 2,048.5 yen after the firm boosted its earnings estimates for the year ended in March after the market closed Friday. Japanese markets re-opened Thursday after a three-day public holiday. In currency trading, the dollar held up at 119.46 yen in late afternoon trade Thursday against 119.44 yen in New York.
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