Japan Stocks end lower

Japan stock market finished session down on Friday, 27 August 2021, as investors opted to secure recent profit on tracking overnight losses on Wall Street and on caution ahead of comments from Fed officials at the annual Jackson Hole symposium on Friday that may provide more clues about its approach to paring stimulus after comments from three of the US Federal Reserve's non-voting regional Presidents -Esther George, Robert Kaplan and James Bullard -urging the central bank to start tapering its asset purchase program.

At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 101.15 points, or 0.36%, to 27,641.14. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 6.58 points, or 0.34%, to 1,928.77.

Shares of retail, air and land transportation sectors were negatively impacted by Japan's COVID-19 state of emergency expansion to eight more prefectures starting Friday. Japan Airlines slid 0.5%, Odakyu Electric Railway dropped 1.4%, and West Japan Railway declined 0.7%.

Shares of major shipping companies recovered after falling sharply last week as investors started to scoop up battered shares. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines surged 10% and Nippon Yusen jumped 7.3%.

Takeda Pharmaceutical, a supplier and distributer of the Moderna vaccine in Japan, dropped 0.5% after it was reported that contaminants were found in some doses in the country, and the use of about 1.63 million shots have been suspended as a precaution.

CURRENCY NEWS: The U.S. dollar climbed to the lower 110 yen range on Friday. The Japanese yen traded at 110.07 against the dollar, weakening from an earlier level around 109.87.

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