Tokyo shares track Wall Street lower as COVID-19 cases spike

Hodogaya Chemical

08/07/2020 08:03

TOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) - Japanese shares slipped on
Wednesday, tracking overnight Wall Street losses, as investors
monitored surging coronavirus cases across the world that could
derail a nascent global economic recovery.
    The benchmark Nikkei share average  .N225  ended down 0.78%
at 22,438.65 after moving in and out of positive territory in
early session, with 40 advancers against 177 decliners.
    New coronavirus cases continue to climb globally, with the
United States surpassing over 3 million confirmed cases across
states and Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne re-imposing
lockdown measures on Tuesday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2C60GZ  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2EE02F
    On the domestic front, capital Tokyo has also seen a rise in
cases, but Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said a new state
of emergency for the coronavirus is not needed.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nT9N2B305I
    The broader Topix  .TOPX  erased early gains and dipped
0.92% to 1,557.23, with all 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo
exchange trading in the red.
   Highly cyclical mining  .IMING.T  and insurance  .IINSU.T 
were among the worst performers on the main bourse, down 2.9%
and 1.43%, respectively.
    OLED manufacturer Hodogaya Chemical Co Ltd  4112.T 
performed strongly, soaring 15.56%, after a media report that
Apple Inc  AAPL.O  will shift to OLED screens for its
fifth-generation iPhones this year.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2EF03Z
    Elsewhere on the market, mall operator Aeon Mall Co Ltd
 8905.T , which had temporarily closed its facilities following
the coronavirus outbreak, dropped 6.26%. 
    The company posted a group net loss of 13.48 billion yen 
($125.35 million) for the March-May quarter and projected a 4
billion yen loss for the fiscal year ending February.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nXB1EXBION
    Bucking the overall weakness, start-up market index Mothers
 .MTHR  inched up 0.14%.


($1 = 107.5400 yen)

 (Reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and
Rashmi Aich)
 ((eimi.yamamitsu@thomsonreuters.com;))