Tokyo shares open lower, yen jumps

Tokyo stocks opened little Thursday aft US shares dropped, with a leap successful the yen sparking speculation that the Japanese authorities had intervened successful the marketplace for the 2nd clip this week.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 scale mislaid 0.64 percent, oregon 246.77 points, to 38,027.28 successful aboriginal trade, portion the broader Topix scale fell 0.27 percent, oregon 7.46 points, to 2,721.94.

The yen strengthened to 153.04 per dollar from astir 157.58 successful New York overnight, aboriginal falling backmost to 155.74 connected Thursday morning.

This prompted speech that the Japanese authorities had bought yen connected the marketplace to enactment the currency aft it fell to 34-year lows.

The yen besides jumped astir 3 percent connected Monday aft diving beneath 160.

A cheaper yen raises the outgo of imports for resource-poor Japan, including vigor and food, though it could promote exports.

The Nikkei mean dropped successful absorption to overnight falls of US tech shares, analysts said.

“The Tokyo marketplace is nether unit aft US semiconductor shares were sold down,” brokerage location Monex said, portion besides noting the yen’s trend.

Among large shares, Sony Group fell 0.50 percent to 13,035 yen portion Toyota mislaid 0.80 percent to 3,576 yen.

Fast Retailing, which operates the Uniqlo brand, fell 0.83 percent to 40,850 yen.

Semiconductor shares besides suffered.

Tokyo Electron mislaid 0.34 percent to 34,820 yen. Disco mislaid 1.63 percent to 45,370 yen.

Tech capitalist SoftBank Group fell 0.95 percent to 7,715 yen.