© Archyde.com. A screen displays stock price data in Tokyo on February 25, 2022. Photo: Kim Kyung Hoon/Archyde.com.
TOKYO (Archyde.com) – Japan’s index closed lower on Monday after hitting a two-month high in the previous session, as investors booked profits and market heavyweight SoftBank Group fell after its investment arm Vision Fund reported another large quarterly loss.
The Nikkei index closed down 1.06 percent to 27,963.47 points, while the broader Topix index fell 1.05 percent to 1956.90.
The benchmark index closed up 3 percent on Friday, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq also extended their gains on the hope that the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) will take a less hawkish stance on raising interest rates due to the weak inflation reading.
SoftBank Group shares fell 12.73 percent, the biggest daily decline in more than two-and-a-half years, after the technology investor suffered a heavy loss in investment arm Vision Fund for the third consecutive quarter.
SoftBank shares had the worst impact on the Nikkei index, followed by Olympus shares, which tumbled 10.81 percent after the medical equipment maker cut its annual operating profit forecast.
Violating the downward trend, Toto shares rose 6.03 percent to become the biggest gainer on the Nikkei index, while cosmetics company Shiseido jumped 5.23 percent.
(Prepared by Doaa Muhammad for the Arabic Bulletin)