The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended lower on Wednesday against other Asian stocks, weighed down by the yen’s rise against the dollar and sales related to the expiration of dividend rights. The Nikkei star index fell 0.8% to 28,027.25 points and the Topix extended index lost 1.21% to 1,967.60 points.
The yen, whose relentless fall against the dollar in the previous days, perceived as good news for Japanese exporting companies, had carried the Tokyo Stock Exchange, recovered on Wednesday. ” There’s a lot of talk about the yen possibly continuing to decline, but it seems like it’s gone too far ,” commented Tetsuo Seshimo of Saison Asset Management, as quoted by Bloomberg.
The Tokyo market was also penalized by sell orders related to the expiry the day before of rights to receive dividends for the year ending March 31. This deadline had on the contrary stimulated the market on Tuesday. The wind of optimism that swept the stock markets on Tuesday thanks to the announcement of progress in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia continued to blow on the other major Asian stock markets: around 06:45 GMT the Hang Seng index of Hong Kong climbed 1.9%, Shanghai 1.8% and Shenzhen 2.4%.
On the side of values
Nintendo in need of action: Nintendo stock fell 5.74% to 63,140 yen after it announced the postponement to spring 2023 of the long-awaited sequel to the action adventure game ” Zelda: Breath of the Wild ” , the release of which was previously announced for sometime in 2022. This new delay worries investors, while the presence of the game on the shelves for the end of the year celebrations could have supported sales of the Switch console.
Sony beefs up its services: electronics giant Sony (-0.11% to 12,935 yen) on Tuesday revealed details of its new online subscription service for its PlayStation consoles, intended to fight against that of its American rival Microsoft. Available in three price levels, the new PlayStation Plus will notably offer, from June, unlimited access to a catalog of several hundred games, which unlike Microsoft’s Game Pass will not include the possibility of playing games at big budget when they come out.
On the side of currencies and oil
On the foreign exchange market, the yen continued its rebound against the dollar, at 121.96 yen for a dollar around 6:50 a.m. GMT against 122.88 yen on Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. GMT. The Japanese currency also regained ground against the euro, which was worth 135.51 yen against 136.23 yen the day before.
The European currency strengthened against the greenback, at the rate of one euro for 1.1110 dollars against 1.1086 dollars on Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. GMT. Oil prices were in the green: around 06:40 GMT the price of a barrel of American WTI gained 1.57% to 105.88 dollars and that of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea took 1.56% to 111.95 dollars .