Tokyo Shares Dip But Nintendo Soars On Apple Tie-up

TOKYO,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -8th Sept,2016) - Tokyo stocks slipped Thursday morning as soft Japanese growth data left investors guessing about the chances of more central bank stimulus, but Nintendo soared on news of a Super Mario game tie-up with Apple.

Shortly before markets opened, Japanese government figures showed that the world's number three economy expanded by a tepid 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter, slightly better than a flat preliminary reading.

But the improved numbers -- owing to an upward revision in capital spending and public investment -- still fell well below first-quarter GDP figures, as a bid to put Japan on a firm recovery track struggles to gain traction.

The weak figures will thrust the spotlight on the Bank of Japan which holds a meeting this month. At a Tokyo seminar this week, BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda stopped short of signalling policymakers' intentions when they hold the two-day meeting from September 20.

Kuroda, however, left the door open for more stimulus and waved off talk of scaling back on its massive easing policy -- a cornerstone of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's faltering Abenomics growth bid. "It's difficult to make a definitive move in either direction," Koichi Kurose, Tokyo-based chief market strategist at Resona Bank, told Bloomberg News.