1st LD Writethru: Tokyo stocks close mixed ahead of China-U.S. trade talks
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E-mail Xinhua, October 10, 2019
TOKYO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed mixed on Thursday, with upcoming trade talks between China and the United States scheduled to start later in the day very much in focus.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 95.60 points, or 0.45 percent, from Wednesday to close the day at 21,551.98.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 0.28 point, or 0.02 percent, to finish at 1,581.42.
Despite a solid lead from Wall Street overnight, trade was choppy as investors awaited the latest round of high-level trade discussions between the world's two largest economies, scheduled to kick off in Washington later in the day, local brokers said.
They added that some investors were in limbo ahead of the talks and hit the sidelines to await provisional cues and the outcome after the two-day talks conclude.
"Investors are still cautious as they focus on any progress in the talks or absence thereof," Chihiro Ota, general manager of investment research at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said.
Shifting to other market prompts, a government report released Thursday showing that Japan's core private-sector machinery orders had dropped in August for a second straight month, did little to bolster investor sentiment, as the report is a key indicator of advance corporate capital expenditure, market analysts here noted.
While issues exposed to external factors lost ground, with industrial robotics makers Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc shedding 0.1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively, battery makers found favor following Japan's Akira Yoshino being jointly-awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his contributions to the development of lithium-ion batteries.
As such, Showa Denko added 2.2 percent, while Furukawa Battery ended the day 3.9 percent higher.
By the close of play, marine transportation and securities house issues led notable advancers, while insurance and service-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,458 to 595 on the First Section, while 100 ended the day unchanged.
On the main section on Thursday, 1,069.11 million shares changed hands, rising from Wednesday's volume of 1,045.24 million shares.
The turnover on the penultimate trading day of the week came to 1,815.8 billion yen (16.91 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
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