Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell more than 1,200 points early on Tuesday, tracking steep losses seen overnight on Wall Street.
On Tuesday, the Nikkei tumbled 5.43 percent, or 1,233.91 points, at 9:55 a.m. HK/SIN. The losses followed a massive U.S. sell-off on Monday, which saw the Dow Jones industrial average break below the 25,000 level and erase gains made by the index this year.
The broader Topix index was last down 5.26 percent.
The Nikkei’s losses on Tuesday extended the index’s more than 1.5 percent declines in the Monday session, but few blamed domestic factors.
“There are few factors to pull down Japan[‘s] stock market except [the] U.S. stock correction,” said Masaki Motomura, an equity strategist at Nomura, highlighting expectations for Japanese corporate earnings growth in fiscal 2017 and 2018.
Declines seen on Tuesday were broad-based, with losses across multiple sectors, including automakers, financials and technology. Among blue chips, Toyota fell 3.89 percent, Sony slid 4.26 percent and Fast Retailing was lower by 5.46 percent. Fanuc Manufacturing lost 5.86 percent.
The move lower also came as the dollar, which edged up against other major currencies overnight, slipped against the Japanese yen, which is often regarded as a safe-haven currency. The greenback fetched 108.68 yen on Tuesday morning.
