Tokyo stocks lost more than two percent on Monday, with investor sentiment weighed down by a sell-off on Wall Street at the end of last week. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 2.55 percent, or 592.45 points, to close at 22,682.08. The broader Topix index was down 2.17 percent, or 40.46 points, at 1,823.74. "Market sentiment was hit hard by New York," said Hikaru Sato, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities.
"But selling pressure was gradually subdued as Tokyo stocks already dropped before US stocks plunged on Friday," Sato told AFP. "Now all eyes are on the opening on Wall Street later today," he added. The Dow suffered its worst drop in more than a year and a half on Friday on disappointing earnings from big companies and worries about higher interest rates.
Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said earlier in a commentary: "Investor sentiment is turning negative following a drop in US shares... but bargain-hunting movement is also expected." The dollar fetched 109.97 yen in Asian afternoon trade, down from 110.18 yen in New York late Friday. Panasonic ended down 1.88 percent at 1,610 yen ahead of its earnings report for the nine months to December later Monday.
Sony was up 1.51 percent at 5,568 yen, after the electronics giant said late Friday it now forecasts annual net profit of 480 billion yen ($4.36 billion), up from a previous forecast of 380 billion yen. Honda was up 2.08 percent at 3,971 yen after the automaker said late Friday it expects net profit of one trillion yen, nearly double the previous forecast.
Its bigger rival Toyota was down 1.63 percent at 7,501 yen while Nissan closed down 0.29 percent at 1,169.5 yen.