Tokyo stocks closed lower Thursday as soft Japanese growth data left investors guessing about the chances of more central bank stimulus, but Nintendo soared on news of a Super Mario game tie-up with Apple. Shortly before markets opened, figures showed that the world's number three economy expanded a weak 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter, slightly better than the preliminary zero reading.
But the improved numbers - owing to an upward revision in capital spending and public investment - still fell well below first-quarter GDP figures, as attempts to put Japan on a firm recovery track struggles to gain traction. The weak figures will thrust the spotlight on the Bank of Japan which holds a meeting this month. At a Tokyo seminar this week, BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda stopped short of signalling policymakers' intentions when they hold the two-day meeting from September 20.
However, he left the door open for more stimulus and waved off talk of scaling back on its massive easing policy - a cornerstone of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's faltering growth plan. "It's difficult to make a definitive move in either direction," Koichi Kurose, Tokyo-based chief market strategist at Resona Bank, told Bloomberg News.
"Vitality in the market is being sapped." The benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended the day 0.32 percent, or 53.67 points, lower at 16,958.77, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares lost 0.27 percent, or 3.58 points, to close at 1,345.95. Electronics firms were among the losers, with Sony slipping 0.75 percent to 3,411 yen and Panasonic falling 0.95 percent to 1,039.5 yen.
Banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropped 1.32 percent to 544 yen while its rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group fell 1.31 percent to 3,600 yen. Nintendo soared 13.20 percent to 27,955 yen after the Japanese game giant and Apple announced that an exclusive Super Mario game will be available on iPhones later this year.