Nikkei Declines Amid Middle East Crisis and Wall Street Sell-Off: Latest News Report

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Japan’s Nikkei index of blue-chip stocks fell on Monday, as investors tended to sell stocks after increased violence in the Middle East and a sell-off on Wall Street at the end of the week.
Shares of Japan’s semiconductor sector followed their American counterparts lower after a media report said China had ordered the country’s largest telecommunications companies to gradually stop using foreign chips.
The Nikkei index fell 0.74 percent to close at 39,232.80 points, but compensated for some early losses resulting in a decline of 1.78 percent. The broader Topix index also fell 0.23 percent.
Confidence, which fell after Wall Street’s major indexes lost more than 1 percent on Friday, plummeted after Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel at the start of the week.
“Risk aversion is already weighing on Japanese stocks,” said Kazuo Kamitani, equity strategist at Nomura Securities.
Astellas Pharmaceuticals stock topped the Nikkei index’s losses, as the stock fell about eight percent, pushing the pharmaceutical sector index down 1.86 percent to the bottom of the 33 sub-indexes on Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Takashimaya stock was the second biggest loser on the Nikkei index, falling 6.66 percent.
Shares of Laser Tech, a maker of semiconductor test equipment, led the chip sector’s losses, falling 2.59 percent. The company’s biggest competitor, Advantest, also fell 1.31 percent.
An index of shares of shipping companies and oil companies, amid growing tensions in the Middle East, rose 2.41 percent and 1.02 percent, respectively.
As for the utilities sector index, it led gains and rose 3.11 percent, supported by shares of Tokyo Electric Power Company, which jumped 5.83 percent amid new steps towards restarting operations at the Kashiwazaki plant -Kariwa, the largest nuclear plant in the world.
“Reuters”