TOKYO: Tokyo stocks gave up gains and closed lower Tuesday on continued worry about the Omicron coronavirus variant, after Moderna’s chief warned existing vaccines might be less effective against the strain.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.63 percent, or 462.16 points, to end at 27,821.76, while the broader Topix index fell 1.03 percent, or 20.13 points, to 1,928.35.

Okasan Online Securities said that the market “was unable to to shrug off concerns over the Omicron variant”.

The head of Moderna said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Tuesday that Covid-19 vaccines are less likely to be effective against the new variant.

“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level . . . we had with Delta,” Stephane Bancel said.

“I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to... are like ‘this is not going to be good’.”

The dollar fetched 113.14 yen in Asian trade, against 113.58 yen in New York late Monday.