Tokyo Stocks Open Lower Extending Omicron Rout

Tokyo, Dec 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Dec, 2021 ) :Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday extending a rout on Wall Street on lingering worries over the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and concern about US Federal Reserve policy.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.01 percent, or 282.46 points, at 27,653.16 in early trade, while the broader Topix index fell 0.65 percent, or 12.60 points, to 1,924.14.

"The Japanese market is being weighed down by falls in US stocks, as concerns over the Omicron variant are growing and there are continuing uncertainties over US monetary policy," Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.

The Dollar fetched 112.83 Yen in early Asian trade, against 112.78 yen in New York late Wednesday.

Airlines were lower after Japan said it asked them to stop taking new incoming flight bookings for one month because of Omicron worries.

Japan Airlines was trading down 2.03 percent at 2,024 yen and its rival ANA Holdings was off 1.02 percent at 2,224 yen.

The announcement came as Japanese authorities announced they had detected a second infection with the new strain in an arriving traveller, a day after confirming the first case in the country.

Fujifilm was down 1.34 percent at 8,940 yen after a report said it will double the size of a UK plant that makes Covid vaccines.

Toyota was off 0.76 percent at 2,030 yen after a report said its labour union will seek wage hikes linked to the responsibilities of each worker, abandoning its usual approach of pursuing a blanket wage hike for all employees.

Its smaller rivals were also lower, with Honda trading down 0.44 percent at 3,161 yen and Nissan down 1.06 percent at 552.1 yen.