Tokyo stocks finished lower in see-saw trading Thursday as smartphone suppliers were hammered by gloomy news from Samsung and Apple, while the Bank of Japan kicked off its first policy meeting of 2016. Shares in Japanese handset suppliers plunged as Samsung reported a 40 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit that it blamed on slowing global demand for smartphones and memory chips.
The Thursday announcement came a day after Apple reported falling iPhone sales, slamming the brakes on years of eye-popping growth. In response, Japan Display tumbled 6.74 percent to finish at 263 yen while component maker Alps Electric plunged 17.43 percent to 2,208 yen. Investors were also eyeing the Friday morning release of fresh data - including inflation, industrial production and unemployment - for hints about the state of Japan's economy.
The central bank's policy statement is expected around midday on Friday and poor figures would ramp up pressure on the BoJ to act. "It's hard to take a position ahead of the Bank of Japan," Yusuke Kuwayama, a portfolio manager at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, told Bloomberg News. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which was in positive territory at lunch, sank 0.71 percent, or 122.47 points, to end at 17,041.45, while the Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.61 percent, or 8.60 points, at 1,392.10.
In other trading, Sony shares tumbled 5.33 percent to 2,378 yen after the Nikkei business daily said it would not pursue a deal to buy Toshiba's medical unit. Toshiba shares fell 3.85 percent to 197 yen and mobile carrier SoftBank dropped 1.70 percent to 5,099 yen. Toyota shares lost most of their early gains to edge up 0.03 percent to 6,883 yen while its small-car unit Daihatsu jumped 4.23 percent to 1,797 yen.