Japan: Stocks fall on domestic coronavirus concerns

Stocks in Japan market finished slightly lower on Thursday, 09 April 2020, as investors elected to book recent profit after spike in coronavirus cases in Tokyo. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average was down 7.47 points, or 0.04%, to 19,345.77. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange declined 8.49 points, or 0.6%, at 1,416.98.

Total 20 issues out of 33 industry category of Topix index declined, with Land Transportation, Securities & Commodities Futures, Foods, Precision Instruments, Pulp & Paper, and Chemicals issues being notable losers, while Mining, Marine Transportation, Nonferrous Metals, and Glass & Ceramics Products issues were notable gainers.

Tokyo stocks opened lower and remained weak in the session, despite an overnight rise on Wall Street, with some investors content to lock in gains following the Nikkei's advance by over 8% over the past four trading days.

The market mood was dampened amid ongoing concerns over the global economic impact of the coronavirus, with Tokyo recording a record high number of daily cases a day earlier. Japan reported 515 infections of the new coronavirus, the largest daily increase so far, while the virus infections on Wednesday grew to a single-day record of 144 in the capital.

Investors took a wait-and-see stance following recent buybacks on hopes that the spread of the coronavirus is slowing in Europe and the United States

The securities house and land transportation sectors, which were bought recently, drew selling. Tobu Railway sank 4.2% and Keisei Electric Railway dropped 1.9%. Daiwa Securities Group fell 2.7% and Nomura Holdings slid 3.4%.

Saizeriya plunged after the Italian restaurant chain revised down its projection for consolidated operating profit for the year to August.

By contrast, oil names Inpex and Cosmo Energy attracted purchases thanks to higher crude oi prices. Also on the positive side were clothing store chain Fast Retailing and industrial robot producer Fanuc.

CURRENCY: The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 100.134 after seeing an earlier low of 99.992. The Japanese yen traded at 108.92 per dollar after weakening from levels below 108.8 yesterday.

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