The main index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei, fell 1.03% on Friday on lingering fears of monetary tightening in the United States, inflation and weakening demand for semiconductors.
The Nikkei, which groups the 225 most representative titles of the market, fell 272.62 points, to 26,235.25 integers.
The Topix, which includes the firms in the main section, those with the largest capitalization, lost 0.54% or 10.23 points, to 1,897.94 units.
The Tokyo parquet opened lower and the Nikkei came to lose up to 1.51% in the first stages of the negotiation after the publication before the opening of inflation data in Japan in November, which stood at 3.7%, one tenth more than in the previous month and its highest level since December 1981.
Japan pared losses during the second tranche, but renewed concern weighed on a potential tightening of the U.S. central bank’s monetary policy after U.S. gross domestic product was unexpectedly revised upwards and weekly unemployment gains fell.
Investors were also affected by lower-than-expected earnings from Micron Technology, which clouded the outlook for chip demand.
The non-ferrous metals sector posted the biggest losses of the day, along with electronics and shipping.
Semiconductor analysis equipment maker Lasertec accounted for the largest trading volume, plunging 4.66%.
Chipmaker Tokyo Eletron fell 3.68%, telecoms and investment group Sofbank fell 0.5% and multinational Sony was left 0.77%.
Among the companies that reaped profits were the Mitsubishi UFJ financial groups and Sumitomo Mitsui.
In the main section, 1,192 businesses were down versus 575 that rose, while 71 closed unchanged.
The trading volume amounted to 2.49 trillion yen (about 17,710 million euros).
