INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
TOKYO: Japanese stocks touched a two-week low on Tuesday, with technology firms coming under heavy selling pressure after shares of Apple
Inc tumbled.
The Nikkei, however, pared its losses by the close and was off a session low of 21,484.65 - its weakest since Oct
30 - on reports China and the United States have resumed high levels talks
The benchmark ended the day down 2.06 per cent at 21,810.52.
Weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, Apple shares fell 5.0 per cent on Monday
after several suppliers to the company, including Lumentum Holdings Inc, cut their forecasts.
In turn, Apple-linked shares in Tokyo
Japan Display Inc sank 9.5 per cent, Murata Manufacturing Co lost 4.7 per cent, Minebea Mitsumi slid 3.1 per cent and TDK Corp lost 6.2 per
cent.
Other technology shares also fell in the wake of the overnight US retreat, with Tokyo Electron falling 1.8 per cent, Screen Holdings
shedding 5.5 per cent and Advantest Corp losing 3.2 per cent
Sony Corp was down 2.6 per cent.
"There were two bearish factors that weighed down today, first was the drop by Apple and second was the
weak machine tool orders data
Electronic stocks and machinery makers therefore suffered," said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities.
Orders for the
country's machine tools fell in October for the first time since November 2016, according to data released by the Japan Machine Tool
Builders Association on Monday.
Robot maker Fanuc Corp lost 4.2 per cent and electric tool manufacturers Makita Corp and Jtekt Corp shed 5.7
per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively
The electric machinery subindex dropped 2.6 per cent.
Automakers sagged following news that the US Commerce Department submitted draft
recommendations to the White House on its investigation into whether to impose tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imported cars and parts on
national security grounds.
Toyota Motor Corp lost 2.4 per cent, Nissan Motor Co dropped nearly 2 per cent and Honda Motor was down 2.1 per
cent.
Toshiba Corp bucked Monday's trend and rose 4.1 per cent after announcing that it would repurchase up to 192.6 million shares, or 30
per cent of its outstanding stock.
All of Tokyo's 33 subindexes were in the red.
The broader Topix was down 2 per cent at 1,638.45.
"A fair
number of factors are weighing on the market currently, such as seeming weakness in some US tech giants and lingering worries about the
Chinese economy," said Yoshinori Shigemi, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
