TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday, tracking falls on Wall Street against a backdrop of ongoing fighting between Israel and Palestine that has raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.33% or 427.42 points, at 31,614.83 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 1.15%, or 26.40 points, to 2,268.94.
National Australia Bank’s senior strategist Ray Attrill said that Middle East developments, that include US President Joe Biden visiting Israel and publicly supporting its claim Hamas was responsible for the Gaza hospital atrocity, and Iran demanding for a ‘full and immediate boycott’ of Israel by Muslim nations, have contributed to increased oil prices overnight and, at least partly because of that, higher US bonds yields.
He added that this in turn sees risk markets under fresh pressure.
The US dollar fetched 149.81 yen in early Asian trade, against 149.93 yen in New York late Wednesday.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow fell 1.0% to 33,665.08, the broad-based S&P 500 sank 1.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.6%.
The yield on the popular 10-year US Treasury note surged above 4.9% for the first time since 2007, as traders prepared for the possibility of interest rates remaining higher for longer.
Among major shares in Tokyo, minicar specialist Suzuki was down 1.07% at 5,839 yen. A report said it would make India an export hub for electric cars.
Mitsubishi Motors in Tokyo stocks
Mitsubishi Motors dropped 3.7% to 536.3 yen, with another report saying the car-manufacturer would decide next week to withdraw from China.
Toyota was down 0.81% at 2,647.5 yen after reports said a partial suspension of production lines in Japan beacuse of a fire at one of its suppliers would continue through Friday.
Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest was down 3.82% at 4,230 yen, Hitachi was off 0.84% at 8,920 yen, and shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines was down 1.12% at 4,068 yen.
Japan booked a trade surplus of 62.4 billion yen (420 million dollars) in September, against market consensus of a 451.5 billion yen deficit, according to data released by the finance ministry before the opening bell.
The figures did not prompt a strong market reaction.
