TOKYO, Japan |(AFP) Friday 4/22/2016 – Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday as traders banked profits, snapping a three-day rally following a retreat in oil prices.
US equity markets pulled back on Thursday from their 2016 peaks in the previous session following renewed weakness in crude prices and a deluge of earnings reports.
“After a strong run, US stocks… retreated, which is weighing on Japanese stocks,” Juichi Wako, a senior strategist at Nomura Holdings, told Bloomberg News.
“It’s not hard for investors to want to take profits in American shares… The Nikkei 225 is up more than 500 points since last week, so we’ll see some profit taking in Japan as well.”
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.82 percent, or 143.15 points, to 17,220.47 in opening deals, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares eased 0.92 percent, or 12.76 points, to 1,380.92.
In share trading, Mitsubishi Motors plummeted for a third session after it admitted falsifying energy consumption tests.
The crisis-hit company’s testing was manipulated to make hundreds of thousands of cars appears more fuel-efficient than they were, it said Wednesday.
On Friday, the embattled stock plunged to 494 yen about 35 minutes after the opening bell, down more than 15 percent, after losing about a third of its value in the past two sessions.
On currency markets, the dollar fell to 109.41 yen from 109.50 yen Thursday in New York, with investors moving in to the safe-haven Japanese currency.
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