Japan Nikkei falls as Sino-U.S. trade talk enthusiasm wanes

Headline indices of the Japan share market closed down on Monday. 05 November 2018, as investor sentiments weakened on tracking soft lead from Wall Street last Friday and amid the rekindled worries about trade tensions after the White House damped down optimism over Sino-U.S. trade talks. Meanwhile, Shanghai stocks' sluggish performance Monday battered investor sentiment in the Tokyo market. Among TSE 33 issues, oil and coal product, miscellaneous product, and wholesale trade-oriented issues comprised those that declined the most by the close of play. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei index declined 344.67 points, or 1.55%, at 21,898.99. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 18.37 points, or 1.11%, to 1,640.39.

The market came under heavy selling pressure after remarks U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow on CNBC. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, however, denied a media report Friday that Donald Trump had asked senior officials of his administration to draft a possible deal with China on trade.

Shares of Fast Retailing tumbled clothing chain operator reported a 10% year-on-year fall in same-store sales at its flagship Uniqlo stores for October. Hitachi Chemical was downbeat after unveiling on Friday the discovery of additional cases of product quality inspection fraud. System integration service provider NTT Data and drugmaker Astellas were among other major losers. By contrast, apparel shop operator Adastria was upbeat after reporting Friday that its sales in October rose 2.4% from the year before on a same-store basis.

CURRENCY NEWS: Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe haven currency, was little changed against greenback. The dollar fetched 113.27 yen, against 113.28 yen in New York on Friday.

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