Tokyo Stocks Open Lower After Wall St Rout

Tokyo stocks opened lower Thursday following a rout on Wall Street, with investor sentiment weighed down by ongoing virus concerns in Japan, which is seeing a steady rise in cases

Tokyo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2020 ):Tokyo stocks opened lower Thursday following a rout on Wall Street, with investor sentiment weighed down by ongoing virus concerns in Japan, which is seeing a steady rise in cases.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.04 percent or 188.46 points to 17,876.95 in early trade while the broader Topix index was down 0.97 percent or 13.10 points at 1,337.98.

"Concerns are growing as infection cases are rising in Japan as well as in the US and Europe," said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities.

"Japan at one point was considered a nation that was succeeding in containing infections, but the recent acceleration has prompted serious concerns," he said in a note.

"We assume that only the Bank of Japan has been buying massively this week," he added.

Wall Street stocks were battered Wednesday as the human and economic toll from the coronavirus continued to rise and more state governments shut down activity to try to contain the outbreak.

Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broad-based S&P 500 dropped more than four percent.

President Donald Trump has warned of "hard days" ahead and health experts said the US death toll could reach 240,000.

Investors have braced themselves for weak figures in key US jobs data due out Friday.

The dollar was trading at 107.15 yen early Thursday against 107.13 yen Wednesday afternoon in New York.

SoftBank Group dropped 1.79 percent to 3,609 yen amid uncertainty over its support package for key investment WeWork.

SoftBank Group plans to let the deadline for a $3-billion deal with WeWork shareholders expire without completing the agreement to buy more equity, despite threats of legal action from some members of the US sharing company's board, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Uniqlo clothing chain operator Fast Retailing tumbled 2.26 percent to 40,990 yen while Nintendo rose 0.83 percent to 42,300 yen.