Tokyo: biggest drop in Nikkei since early April
Thursday, 11.06.2020
news-single-imgcaption" style="width:240px">The Nikkei was thus passed in early June above 23,000 points, for the first time since February. (Keystone).
–
The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended Thursday in sharp decline, with its Nikkei index having experienced its worst session in more than two months, its recent optimism having given way to renewed concerns about the persistence of the coronavirus in the United States.
The Nikkei star index slipped 2.82% to 22,472.91 points (-652 points). He had not dropped as many points in a single session since April 1.
The broad Topix index fell by 2.2% to 1,588.92 points.
Japanese investors have been brutally brought back to the reality of the current pandemic by seeing the world’s first economy pass the symbolic milestone of two million cases, while their number remains on an ascending curve in several states, such as Texas.
“The economies may be picking up, but we are still far from the end of the pandemic,” said Yoshihiro Okumura, manager of Chibagin Asset Management.
A reality that Japanese investors had put aside for a fortnight, preferring to surf the hopes around the economic recovery.
The Nikkei was thus passed in early June above 23,000 points, for the first time since February.
At the end of its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve did not deliver any new exceptional measures but announced that it intended to keep interest rates close to zero until 2022.
This has significantly lowered the dollar against the yen, an unfavorable movement for Japanese export values.
On the side of values
All of the sectors present on the Nikkei ended in the red, the index having been particularly pulled down by real estate, financial and manufacturers of durable consumer goods, such as the automobile.
EXPLOSION IN AN ASAHI KASEI FACTORY: the chemical group Asahi Kasei (-5.15% at 892.1 yen) announced on Wednesday an explosion in one of its factories located in Moriyama, near Kyoto (west ), who killed a worker. Producing components for lithium-ion batteries in particular, the factory was partially shutdown before the explosion. Activity on the site is now completely suspended, due to the police investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy.
JFE HOLDINGS PLANS FOR MERGER: Japan’s second steelmaker, JFE Holdings (-7.49% to 827 yen), is open to discuss a possible merger with a competitor to strengthen in the face of the crisis, said its chief financial officer Masashi Terahata in an interview at the Bloomberg agency.
The Japanese steel sector was in trouble before the pandemic, due to weakening national demand and fierce Chinese competition in particular. The main Japanese competitors of JFE Holdings are the number one national Nippon Steel Corp (-6.25% to 1,027 yen) and Kobe Steel (-3.95% to 413 yen).
On the currency and oil side
The yen was almost in equilibrium against the dollar, at a rate of one dollar for 107.08 yen around 06:50 GMT, against 107.12 yen Wednesday at 21:00 GMT. The yen, however, rose significantly against the dollar on Wednesday after the Fed.
The Japanese currency was up slightly against the euro, at the rate of one euro for 121.62 yen against 121.84 yen the day before.
The European currency fell against the dollar, trading for 1.1357 dollars against 1.1374 dollars on Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
The oil market was in sharp decline. Around 6:40 GMT the price of a barrel of American WTI crude yielded 3.48% to 38.22 dollars, and that of a barrel of Brent of the North Sea lost 2.95% to 40.50 dollars. (AWP)
– .
