Nikkei drops 0.38% ahead of central bank meeting

 The Nikkei stock index lost 0.38 percent on Tuesday as investors offloaded issues to lock in gains ahead of key central bank meetings in the U.S. and Japan this week.
The Nikkei 225 index dropped 58.81 points to finish at 15,329. 91, while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues lost 0.18 percent, or 2.28 points, to close at 1,252.00.
Investors were broadly selling from the get-go following the U. S. dollar's decline and the market's recent gains, and local traders said that all eyes were now focused on the outcome of central bank meetings in both the U.S. and Japan.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will start its two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting later in the day, although the Fed is unlikely to announce any changes to its plans to scale down its stimulus program, strategists here said.
"The Fed vigil, as well as recent sharp weakness in Shanghai shares, is combining to dampen Japan investor enthusiasm. Nobody really expects the U.S. central bank to derail the wind-down of its own stimulus program because of global economic growth fears, but the direction and pace of a rise in U.S. interest rates is a real concern,"said Tatsunori Kawai, chief strategist at kabu.com Securities.
"How the Fed views future rate moves could go a long way to influencing dollar-yen, and thus Japan stock trading. 'How strong is the dollar likely to remain?' is the big question,"Kawai added.
Japan's central bank, for its part, will hold a one-day policy meeting on Friday and while its chief Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated that recent yen moves were of benefit to the economy and that the bank's 2 percent inflation target was on track, comments made by his deputy provoked some investor consternation.
The bank's deputy governor, Kikuo Iwata, told lawmakers that next year's inflation target couldn't be expected to run like a" train schedule."
"Market players didn't dare to take aggressive positions ahead of closely watched events over monetary policies in the United States and Japan, although both of them are likely to end calmly," said Ayako Terada from Nomura Securities Co.'s investment research department.
With the U.S. dollar changing hands at 107.82 yen this afternoon in Tokyo, compared to 107.78 yen logged in New York on Monday afternoon, exporters, reliant on a weaker yen to boost profits, made overseas and overall competitiveness came under pressure.
Canon fell 2.5 percent to 3,195 yen, with pressure on the stock compounded by the firm saying its quarterly operating profit fell by a fifth on falling demand for its cameras and its revenue had dropped 4.5 percent to 872.2 billion yen.
Owing to a weaker yen, however, Canon raised its full-year earnings estimates to 370 billion yen for the year, from an initial estimate of 365 billion yen.
General contractor Kajima slumped 6 percent to 482 yen, after cutting its net income forecast for the current year by 3 billion yen to 14 billion yen.
Fujikura, an electric wire and cable maker, tumbled 7.9 percent to 446 yen, after saying that one of its China-based subsidiaries and its employees had been indicted on bribery charges.
Issues linked to the Ebola virus continued to find traction Tuesday, with Fujifilm Holdings adding 0.5 percent to 3,710 yen, while clean air system maker Airtech Japan surged 9.8 percent to close at 1,264 yen.
Semiconductor maker Sumco was also in the spotlight, gaining 2. 6 percent to finish at 1,326 yen, after a recommendation by Jefferies, who also upped their profit estimate for the firm to 25 billion yen for the current business year.
Trading volume on Tuesday rose to 1.87 billion shares on the Tokyo Exchange's First Section, up from Monday's volume of 1.82 billion shares, with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones by 1,033 to 639. The Nikkei stock index lost 0.38 percent on Tuesday as investors offloaded issues to lock in gains ahead of key central bank meetings in the U.S. and Japan this week.
The Nikkei 225 index dropped 58.81 points to finish at 15,329. 91, while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues lost 0.18 percent, or 2.28 points, to close at 1,252.00.
Investors were broadly selling from the get-go following the U. S. dollar's decline and the market's recent gains, and local traders said that all eyes were now focused on the outcome of central bank meetings in both the U.S. and Japan.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will start its two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting later in the day, although the Fed is unlikely to announce any changes to its plans to scale down its stimulus program, strategists here said.
"The Fed vigil, as well as recent sharp weakness in Shanghai shares, is combining to dampen Japan investor enthusiasm. Nobody really expects the U.S. central bank to derail the wind-down of its own stimulus program because of global economic growth fears, but the direction and pace of a rise in U.S. interest rates is a real concern,"said Tatsunori Kawai, chief strategist at kabu.com Securities.
"How the Fed views future rate moves could go a long way to influencing dollar-yen, and thus Japan stock trading. 'How strong is the dollar likely to remain?' is the big question,"Kawai added.
Japan's central bank, for its part, will hold a one-day policy meeting on Friday and while its chief Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated that recent yen moves were of benefit to the economy and that the bank's 2 percent inflation target was on track, comments made by his deputy provoked some investor consternation.
The bank's deputy governor, Kikuo Iwata, told lawmakers that next year's inflation target couldn't be expected to run like a" train schedule."
"Market players didn't dare to take aggressive positions ahead of closely watched events over monetary policies in the United States and Japan, although both of them are likely to end calmly," said Ayako Terada from Nomura Securities Co.'s investment research department.
With the U.S. dollar changing hands at 107.82 yen this afternoon in Tokyo, compared to 107.78 yen logged in New York on Monday afternoon, exporters, reliant on a weaker yen to boost profits, made overseas and overall competitiveness came under pressure.
Canon fell 2.5 percent to 3,195 yen, with pressure on the stock compounded by the firm saying its quarterly operating profit fell by a fifth on falling demand for its cameras and its revenue had dropped 4.5 percent to 872.2 billion yen.
Owing to a weaker yen, however, Canon raised its full-year earnings estimates to 370 billion yen for the year, from an initial estimate of 365 billion yen.
General contractor Kajima slumped 6 percent to 482 yen, after cutting its net income forecast for the current year by 3 billion yen to 14 billion yen.
Fujikura, an electric wire and cable maker, tumbled 7.9 percent to 446 yen, after saying that one of its China-based subsidiaries and its employees had been indicted on bribery charges.
Issues linked to the Ebola virus continued to find traction Tuesday, with Fujifilm Holdings adding 0.5 percent to 3,710 yen, while clean air system maker Airtech Japan surged 9.8 percent to close at 1,264 yen.
Semiconductor maker Sumco was also in the spotlight, gaining 2. 6 percent to finish at 1,326 yen, after a recommendation by Jefferies, who also upped their profit estimate for the firm to 25 billion yen for the current business year.
Trading volume on Tuesday rose to 1.87 billion shares on the Tokyo Exchange's First Section, up from Monday's volume of 1.82 billion shares, with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones by 1,033 to 639.