Japanese stocks fell during the final sessions of the week from their record highs, even as they continued to log weekly gains.
The decline was driven by cautious optimism regarding developments in the Middle East, along with selling pressure on technology company shares.
Despite this, U.S. President Donald Trump reaffirmed positive expectations about the conflict, saying the war with Iran “must end very soon”.
The Nikkei index dropped 1.75% to close at 58,475 points, but it remains up for the week by roughly 2.7%. The broader TOPIX index also fell by about 1.41% to 3,760 points.
Among the biggest decliners were shares of Tokyo Electron (-3.95%), SoftBank Group (-3.1%), and Kioxia, a leading memory-chip maker (-9.86%). Meanwhile, Sumco, which specializes in silicon wafers, posted the worst performance on the Nikkei, falling 9.99%.
Separately, Kazuo Ueda, governor of the Bank of Japan, said during a press conference in Washington that higher oil prices make it difficult for monetary policy to deal with them, according to what Jiji Press reported. He added that developments in the Middle East would be a key factor in the central bank’s decision on interest rates, as the bank prepares to hold a two-day meeting on the 27th and 28th of this month.
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