Nikkei falls as tumble by Chinese shares sours sentiment

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
Nikkei falls as tumble by Chinese shares sours sentiment
Credit: © Reuters.

* Nikkei drops 1.03 pct, pulls back from near 2-week highs

* Kobe Steel, Furakawa Elec slump on quarterly earnings

* Surge by banks stalls as rise in long-term yield stops

By Shinichi Saoshiro

TOKYO, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average on Thursday pulled back from the previous day's near two-week highs, as Chinese stocks fell sharply after an escalation in the Sino-U.S. trade war soured sentiment.

The Nikkei .N225 ended the day down 1.03 percent at 22,512.53.

The index's fall gathered pace after Chinese shares tumbled, with the trade war back in focus as U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a higher 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. .SS

"Japanese equities felt the impact from the slide in the broader Asian markets following President Trump's latest proposal," said Yoshinori Shigemi, global markets strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.

"The domestic market retains enough strength to bounce back, but it is wary as there is the likelihood of President Trump following up his threats with actual action."

Shares of industrial machinery maker Komatsu Ltd 6301.T , which gets hefty revenue from China, lost 3.66 percent.

Kobe Steel fell 9.6 percent after it reported a 55 percent drop in recurring profit in the April-June quarter as a data-tampering scandal that hit Japan's third largest steelmaker hurt profits. Furukawa Electric Co 5801.T slumped nearly 10 percent after the maker of metal products, cables and optical fibres saw its net profit fall 51.6 percent to 3.31 billion yen in the April-June quarter. banking sub-sector .IBNKS.T , which rallied 2.8 percent on Wednesday as a spike in Japan's long-term interest rates improved profitability prospects for banks, slipped 0.59 percent as the rise in rates came to a halt.

Gainers included Konica Minolta Inc 4902.T , which rose 3.66 percent after the printer and optical devices manufacturer revised up its operating profit forecast for the year through March 2019 to 62 billion yen ($555 million) from 60 billion yen. broader Topix .TOPX fell 1 percent to 1,752.09.

All but one of Tokyo's sub-sectors ended in negative territory.

($1 = 111.6900 yen)

Add Chart to Comment

Comment Guidelines

We encourage you to use comments to engage with users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind: 

  • Enrich the conversation
  • Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
  • Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically.
  •  Use standard writing style. Include punctuation and upper and lower cases.
  • NOTE: Spam and/or promotional messages and links within a comment will be removed
  • Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user.
  • Don’t Monopolize the Conversation. We appreciate passion and conviction, but we also believe strongly in giving everyone a chance to air their thoughts. Therefore, in addition to civil interaction, we expect commenters to offer their opinions succinctly and thoughtfully, but not so repeatedly that others are annoyed or offended. If we receive complaints about individuals who take over a thread or forum, we reserve the right to ban them from the site, without recourse.
  • Only English comments will be allowed.

Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.

Drop an image here or Supported formats: *.jpg, *.png, *.gif up to 5mb

Error: File type not supported

Drop an image here or

100
Please try another search