TOKYO: Japanese stocks ended lower on Wednesday amid uncertainty about the results of US Senate runoff elections in Georgia, while sentiment was also dented by a likely announcement of a state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding cities later this week.

The Nikkei 225 Index ended down 0.38% to 27,055.94 after gaining as much as 0.17%. The broader Topix rose 0.28% to 1,796.18.

The underperformers among the Topix 30 were Sony Corp, down 2.27%, followed by Keyence Corp, losing 2.09%.

The stocks that gained the most among the top 30 core Topix names were Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, up 4.04%, followed by Mizuho Financial Group Inc, gaining 3.09%.

There were 161 advancers on the Nikkei index against 60 decliners.

The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s main board was 1.04 billion, compared to the average of 1.18 billion in the past 30 days.