The Nikkei lost 0.39% to 22,329.94 points and the Topix fell 0.2% to 1,546.74 points. Over the past week as a whole, however, the Nikkei rebounded sharply (+ 2.85%).
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The Tokyo Stock Exchange finished slightly lower on Friday, cautious ahead of the US employment figures and a long weekend in Japan, especially as Donald Trump further increased the pressure on Chinese applications TikTok and WeChat.
The flagship Nikkei index lost 0.39% to 22,329.94 points and the extended Topix index fell 0.2% to 1,546.74 points. Over the past week as a whole, however, the Nikkei rebounded sharply (+ 2.85%).
The Japanese market had been misguided from the start of the session, as investors preferred to play it safe ahead of the release of July US employment figures later today.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange will observe a public holiday in Japan on Monday and next week coincides with a traditional holiday (Obon) marking the summer truce in the country, which has encouraged profit taking, analysts said.
But investors in Tokyo were also shaken Friday by a new warning shot from Washington vis-à-vis Beijing, which had the effect of weakening the Chinese stock markets.
In the name of the national security of the United States, US President Donald Trump has signed decrees prohibiting within 45 days any transaction between US residents with ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the TikTok application, and WeChat, a social network owned by Chinese digital giant Tencent.
On the side of values
“SUPER” NINTENDO
Nintendo action rose sharply (+ 2.58% to 50,460 yen) after the group’s flourishing quarterly results published the day before, having benefited from the global craze for video games during the containments put in place against the pandemic.
In particular, the net profit of the manufacturer of the Switch console was multiplied by 6.4 over one year over the period April-June, while its turnover more than doubled. Despite this, Nintendo remained cautious and did not change its forecast for its entire 2020/21 fiscal year.
SHISEIDO, DAMAGED BEAUTY
The title of the Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido instead fell 8.64% to 5,540 yen.
Hit hard by the pandemic, the group announced Thursday a net loss in the second quarter and expected to remain in the red in 2020, to the tune of 22 billion yen (175.6 million euros), which would be its worst annual net loss since 2002.
Worse, Shiseido does not expect a full recovery of the global beauty market and its own businesses before 2023.
On the currency and oil side
The dollar was stable against the Japanese currency, at a rate of one dollar for 105.56 yen around 06:40 GMT against 105.55 yen Thursday at 21:00 GMT.
The European currency weakened against the yen, a euro worth 125.02 yen against 125.36 yen the day before.
The euro also fell against the greenback: one euro was trading for 1.1843 dollars against 1.1877 dollars on Thursday.
Having started rising in the morning in Asia, oil prices then fell slightly into the red: around 06:30 GMT the price of a barrel of American crude WTI lost 0.19% to 41.87 dollars and that of a barrel of sea Brent North dropped 0.18% to 45.01 dollars.
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