Japan Nikkei extends losses

Japan stock market finished lower for second straight session on Wednesday, 04 August 2021, as risk aversion selloff continued, amid concerns that the country continues to struggle to contain the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus around Olympic city Tokyo and other parts of Japan.

At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average declined 57.75 points, or 0.21%, to 27,584.08. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange dropped 9.71 points, or 0.5%, to 1,921.43.

Trading volume turnover in the 1st section increased to 1,074 million shares from 971 million shares in previous session. Trading value turnover increased to 2,438.09 billion yen from 2,136.41 billion yen in previous session.

Total 25 of 33 sectors sub-indexes on the Tokyo exchange ended down, with bottom performing sectors were Nonferrous Metals (down 2.2%), Wholesale Trade (down 1.4%), Pharmaceutical (down 1.1%), Construction (down 1%), Textiles & Apparels (down 0.9%), Electric Appliances (down 0.8%), and Transportation Equipment (down 0.7%), while top advancing sectors included Mining (up 2.2%), Marine Transportation (up 1.8%), Fishery, Agriculture & Forestry (up 1.2%), Iron & Steel (up 1%), and Oil & Coal Products (up 0.8%).

Shares of export-oriented electric appliance makers declined after the yen advanced slightly against the U.S. dollar overnight. Sharp dropped 0.9% to 1,672 yen, Panasonic declined 0.4% to 1,330.50 yen and Hitachi shed 0.4% to 6,083 yen.

Shares of Toyota slipped 0.8% to 9,970 yen after the automaker kept its earnings outlook unchanged for the business year through March citing uncertainty, although its net profit in the April to June quarter jumped 5.7-fold from a year earlier.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Japanese yen traded at 109.06 per dollar, having strengthened from levels above 109.6 against the greenback earlier this week.

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