Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday as investors remained worried over surging oil prices and uncertainties surrounding the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.22 percent or 307.51 points to 24,913.90, while the broader Topix index fell 1.17 percent or 21.04 points to 1,772.99. The dollar fetched 115.32 yen, up from 115.27 yen in New York on Monday, reports BSS.
The Tokyo market opened with falls tracking Wall Street, where “stocks declined as surging commodity prices continued to add to worry that economic growth prospects will take a big hit as the Ukraine uncertainty persists,” Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.
The Nikkei is likely to stay low today “with the ‘oil shock’ rocking stocks worldwide and causing risk-averse sentiment,” Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.
“The recent rally in oil and other commodity prices may be going too far, but the market will nonetheless have to be aware of the risk that inflation remains unstoppable,” the brokerage said.
Among major shares in Tokyo, Nissan tumbled 4.02 percent to 445.7 yen. The automaker announced on Monday it will suspend operations at a Russian factory in the coming days, adding to the earlier measure it had taken of stopping exports of vehicles to Russia.
Toyota lost 0.35 percent to 1,838.5 yen, Toshiba sank 1.38 percent to 4,186 yen and Fast Retailing dived 2.02 percent to 59,480 yen. SoftBank Group slid 2.31 percent to 4,598 yen. Sony was slightly up 0.36 percent to 11,150 yen.
