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| - Tokyo stocks closed lower on Tuesday as investors locked in profits, with markets weighed down by losses on Chinese shares. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.61 percent or 178.23 points to end at 28,995.92, while the broader Topix index fell 0.94 percent or 18.70 points to 1,971.48. "The Nikkei index opened higher following gains on Wall Street, but the market lost a sense of direction after the index fell on profit-taking," Okasan Online Securities said in a note. Rikiya Takebe, Okasan's senior strategist, noted investors were also eyeing "the joint statement by the US, Canada and the UK criticising China's violation of human rights and abuse in Xinjiang". China bristled Tuesday after Western nations lined up to impose sanctions over its crackdown on Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, the first concerted international action against Beijing since US President Joe Biden took office. In Tokyo trading, market heavyweight SoftBank Group slid 0.90 percent to 9,775 yen while Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing dipped 0.10 percent to 86,800 yen. Japanese games giant Nintendo jumped 1.58 percent to 63,980 yen after announcing Tuesday it would team up with Niantic, the US firm behind runaway hit Pokemon Go, to develop augmented reality smartphone games. Marubeni dropped 2.38 percent to 929.1 yen after a report said a project to build a hydropower plant in northern Myanmar in which the trading firm is participating was suspended following the coup in the country. Toyota lost 0.69 percent to 8,304 yen while Honda fell 1.37 percent to 3,299 yen. Nissan advanced 0.73 percent to 605.4 yen. The dollar fetched 108.74 yen in Asian trade, against 108.83 yen in New York late Monday. nf/sah/leg
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