The Tokyo Stock Exchange was weighed down Monday morning by its technology stocks after the sharp decline of the Nasdaq on Friday on Wall Street, amid fears of further rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to fight inflation.
The flagship Nikkei index dropped 0.7% to 27,477.95 points around 00:50 GMT and the broader Topix index lost 0.18% to 1,983.43 points.
Investors in Tokyo were also cautious ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled announcement of the government’s nominee to lead the Bank of Japan (BoJ) in April.
Several Japanese media reported on Friday that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had set his sights on economist Kazuo Ueda, a surprise that briefly boosted the yen. However, this resumed on Monday.
The Japanese government had previously wanted to offer the position to the current BoJ deputy governor, Masayoshi Amamiya, a press report which had on the contrary lowered the yen because he is considered a fervent defender of the maintenance of ultra-monetary monetary policy. accommodating of the institution.
Mr. Amamiya, however, “firmly” refused the offer according to the Nikkei daily.
On the side of values
OPTIMISM ON BANKS: Japanese bank stocks, usually battered by the BoJ’s ultra-accommodative monetary policy, jumped in the face of its normalization prospects: Mitsubishi UFJ gained 2.32% to 980.1 yen, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 2.23% to 5,867 yen and Mizuho 1.72% to 2,127.5 yen.
HONDA: Honda shares soared 3.87% to 3,297 yen. Japan’s second-largest automaker maintained its full-year profit forecast on Friday after a 27% jump in net profit in the third quarter. It cut its sales targets, however, blaming the impact of the semiconductor shortage in particular.
On the side of currencies and oil
The yen fell against the dollar, which was worth 131.63 yen around 00:50 GMT against 131.36 yen on Friday at 21:00 GMT.
The Japanese currency also gave up some ground against the euro, which traded at 140.39 yen against 140.26 yen at the end of last week.
One euro was worth 1.0676 dollars against 1.0678 dollars on Friday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
On the oil market, the American barrel of WTI lost 0.51% to 79.31 dollars and that of Brent from the North Sea dropped 0.52% to 85.94 dollars around 00:40 GMT.
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