Tokyo stocks close marginally down in cautious trade
Friday, June 11, 2021       14:44 WIB

Tokyo, June 11, 2021 (AFP)
Tokyo stocks edged down on Friday in cautious trade with investors focusing on next week's Federal Reserve meeting.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.03 percent, or 9.83 points, to close at 28,948.73. Over the week, however, it edged up 0.02 percent.
The broader Topix index fell 0.14 percent, or 2.71 points, to 1,954.02 and lost 0.26 percent from a week before.
"It's hard to take positions ahead of next week's FOMC ," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP, referring to a meeting of the US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee.
Concerns are growing that the Fed could be forced to reduce or "taper" its bond-buying scheme, or lift interest rates earlier than planned to prevent the economy from overheating.
Some investors welcomed an acceleration in Japan's Covid-19 vaccine rollout, which sustained buying sentiment.
"But others say the pace is much slower than in other countries," Horiuchi said, adding that it may take time to confirm the impact of the vaccine programme on the economy.
The dollar fetched 109.36 yen in Asian afternoon trade against 109.32 yen in New York late Thursday.
Toshiba dropped 1.58 percent to 4,645 yen after a third-party probe said the firm sought government help to swing a boardroom vote proposed by activist shareholders at its last regular annual general meeting.
Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing lost 0.93 percent to 82,500 yen as SoftBank Group fell 0.27 percent to 8,000 yen.
Japan Post jumped 2.45 percent to 927.7 yen after it said it will buy back up to 250 billion yen ($2.3 billion) of shares from the finance ministry.

Sumber : AFP