Tokyo: Tokyo stocks opened lower Tuesday, dragged down by lingering uncertainty over the prospects for a US-North Korea summit and a political crisis in Italy which is heading for fresh elections.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.32 percent or 71.00 points to 22,410.09 in early trade while the broader Topix index was down 0.27 percent or 4.75 points at 1,765.67.
“A wait-and-see mood is likely to spread as Italian risk emerged on top of uncertainty over the prospects for the US-North Korea summit and concerns about US-China trade tensions,” SBI Securities said in a commentary.
Italy was plunged into political chaos after the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the far-right League’s bid to form a government collapsed.
President Sergio Mattarella on Monday named a former IMF economist as caretaker prime minister to lead the country into new elections, possibly as soon as the autumn.
While US markets were closed for a holiday, European stocks, bonds and the euro fell on Monday as investors feared the nomination of a caretaker government will only delay, but not avert, a eurozone crisis.
The dollar inched down to 109.21 yen from 109.35 yen in Europe on Monday while the euro stayed weak, buying $1.1626 against $1.1624.
Investors largely shrugged off a Japanese government survey showing the jobless rate was flat at 2.5 percent in April, hovering near the lowest level in 25 years.
In individual stock trade, companies doing a large percentage of their business in Europe were weaker, with Mazda down 0.46 percent at 1,403.5 yen.
Hitachi fell 1.07 percent to 816.8 yen as investors watch its negotiations with the British government over a major nuclear power project.
AFP