Japan Nikkei falls on profit taking

Japan share market finished lower for the first time in five market days on Wednesday, 17 November 2021, as investors opted to lock in gains on concerns about an earlier than expected rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, selloff also fuelled on fears that bad depreciation of the currency would rather hurt the Japanese economy by pushing up domestic firms' costs on procuring materials and other goods from abroad,

At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average declined 119.79 points, or 0.4%, to 29,688.33. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 12.49 points, or 0.61%, to 2,038.34. Trading volume turnover on the main section stood at 1.17 billion shares worth 2.74 trillion yen.

Total 29 of 33 Topix industry groups ended down, with bottom performing issues were Air Transportation (down 2.4%), Services (down 2%), Fishery, Agriculture & Forestry (down 2%), Warehousing & Harbor Transportation Services (down 1.7%), and Retail Trade (down 1.6%) issues, while top performing issues were Mining (up 1.8%), and Precision Instruments (up 1.7%) issue.

Shares of Japanese automakers slipped as investors reacted to sluggish exports growth and flat core machinery orders data. Nissan was down nearly 2%, Honda dropped 1.6%, and Mitsubishi Motor fell 1.75%.

Semiconductor shares extended recent gains, with Tokyo Electron and Advantest both gained over 3%.

Shares of energy firms such as Idemitsu Kosan and Inpex advanced 1-2% on reports that the government is planning subsidies for oil refiners to counter an increase in oil prices.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan Core Machine Orders Flat In September- Japan core machine orders was down 0.4 billion yen or 0.0% in September, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday, coming in at 838.9 billion yen, following the 2.4% decline in August. On a yearly basis, core machine orders rose 12.5% after rising 17.0% in the previous month. For the third quarter of 2021, core machine orders rose 0.7% on quarter and 13.3% on year.

CURRENCY NEWS: Japanese yen depreciated against greenback on as upbeat economic data in the U.S. bolstered bets for earlier policy tightening and diverged further from Japan's easy monetary stance. The Japanese yen traded at 114.92 per dollar, weakening from previous levels of around 114.1.

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