Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index plunged to a 15-month low on Thursday amid disappointment over the most recent meeting of the US Federal Reserve which saw the bank raise rates. The Nikkei 225 index, which at one point had lost more than three percent, closed down 2.84 percent or 595.34 points to finish at 20,392.58, the lowest since September last year.
The broader Topix index dropped 2.51 percent or 38.99 points to 1,517.16. "Market sentiment is really weak," said Daiwa Securities senior technical analyst Hikaru Sato. "Trading factors were easily taken as negative," Sato told AFP. The Tokyo market opened lower, extending losses in US shares amid worries over the Fed's pace of monetary tightening, analysts said.
But Ray Attrill, strategist at National Australia Bank, said the post-Fed meeting sentiment was "a bit surprising" given the bank had stressed a "gradual" pace of rate hikes next year. "The expectation here was that all reference to 'gradual' could be dropped," he said. In addition to worries over the Fed meeting, "concerns over the slowing of the global economy also weighed on the market", Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.
A strong yen also put downward pressure on stocks, according to Daiwa's Sato. The dollar fetched 111.92 yen in Asian afternoon trade, against 112.49 yen in New York. After a volatile session, shares in the mobile phone unit of Japanese technology giant SoftBank rose 1.09 percent to 1,296 yen after a bruising debut saw stocks close nearly 15 percent lower.
Nissan dropped 2.19 percent to 901.3 yen after a Japanese court rejected prosecutors' request to extend the detention of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn after his arrest for financial misconduct. Local media said he could now be released as early as Friday. In other individual stocks, Toyota lost 1.96 percent to 6,629 yen with Honda down 2.72 percent at 2,964 yen.
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