TOKYO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed sharply lower Monday, with the benchmark Nikkei stock index tumbling to a two-month low, as heightening concerns over global trade issues triggered a rout.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 366.87 points, or 1.74 percent, from Friday to close the day at 20,720.29.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 27.58 points, or 1.80 percent, to finish at 1,505.88.
Amid a dearth of fresh cues, global trade concerns became the predominant driving force behind market moves today and investors took to offloading issues as major bourses in the region tracked lower on Monday
Local brokers added that the theme continued from late last week, when markets across the globe saw a wholesale rout on the renewed trade concerns, with investors switching out of riskier assets like stocks and into safe havens like the Japanese yen.
"With no major economic events scheduled this week that could support Tokyo shares, the downward trend is likely to continue," Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., was quoted as saying, regarding the outlook for the market this week.
As for the yen being the usual safe haven for investors looking to switch out of stocks in times of global market turbulence, this proved not to be the case, with the U.S. dollar dropping to its lowest level in seven months in the upper 105 yen zone in Tokyo.
Today's risk-off mood triggered by mounting trade concerns sent investors fleeing, even from the usually safe haven Japanese currency.
The dollar was quoted at 105.94-95 yen at 5 p.m. compared with 106.56-66 yen in New York and 106.91-92 yen at 5 p.m. in Tokyo on Friday.
During the day, it moved between 105.79 yen and 106.68 yen, trading most frequently at the 106.03 yen mark, market players highlighted.
Cyclical issues like chipmakers, broadly exposed to macroeconomic themes, lost ground, and some exporters were negatively impacted by the yen's firmness against the U.S. dollar.
Exporters here typically rely on a weaker yen against other major currencies to ensure profits are boosted when repatriated and so they can stay price competitive in overseas markets.
By the close of play, almost all industry categories retreated to close in negative territory, with farm and fishery, iron and steel, and electric appliance-linked issues comprising those that declined the most, and issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,914 to 196 on the First Section, while 39 ended the day unchanged.
On the main section on Monday, 1,474.47 million share changed hands, dropping from Friday's volume of 1,544.04 million shares.
The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 2,515.1 billion yen (23.70 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
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