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| - Tokyo stocks dropped Wednesday as mounting tension between the United States and Iran spooked investors, but the market avoided free-fall after Tehran said it had "concluded" for now its missile attacks on US forces in Iraq. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.57 percent or 370.96 points to 23,204.76, while the broader Topix index fell 1.37 percent or 23.65 points to 1,701.40. Shortly before the opening bell, investors heard the news that Iran fired missiles against military bases in Iraq that house US troops. It came with the global market already holding its breath after US President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The Iranian attack spiked oil prices and drove down the dollar as well as Asian shares. Investors fled "in reaction to the news Iran launched missiles at Iraqi bases that house US troops," Kyoko Amemiya, senior market advisor at SBI Securities, told AFP. However, shortly before noon in Japan time, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted his nation had "concluded" its reprisal. The market then trimmed its earlier losses while the forex market gained relative stability. "Once the round of selling subsided, dip buying began," allowing the Nikkei index to trim earlier losses, Okasan Online Securities said in a note to clients. The dollar stood at 108.43 yen in Tokyo in the afternoon, rebounding from 107.65 yen seen in earlier, and surpassing the 108.42 yen in New York on Tuesday. "Once a round of buy-backs ended, investors took a wait-and-see stance," the brokerage said, adding that the market wanted to see how the United States will react to the missile attacks. Among major shares, Toyota fell 1.27 percent to 7,617 yen, while Uniqlo-operator Fast Retailing dropped 1.85 percent to 62,080 yen. SoftBank Group lost 1.36 percent to 4,583 yen. Energy developer Inpex Corp added 0.34 percent to 1,187 yen. Sony shed earlier losses and ended up 0.07 percent to 7,660 yen. hih/sah/rbu
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