The main stock index in Tokyo, the Nikkei, reduced its gains throughout the session to end up 0.25% at 39,134.79 points, while the broader Topix index lost 0.2% to 2,776. 80 points. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost 0.62% around 06:20 GMT.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended Tuesday in mixed order, supported on one side by the previous day’s gains on Wall Street but caught up like the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by caution before the publication of American inflation figures and the Fed.
The main stock index in Tokyo, the Nikkei, reduced its gains throughout the session to end up 0.25% at 39,134.79 points, while the broader Topix index lost 0.2% to 2,776. 80 points.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange lost 0.62% around 06:20 GMT.
The May CPI inflation index in the United States will be released on Wednesday, followed by monetary policy decisions from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) on Thursday and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) on Friday.
The majority of observers are counting on a status quo at the Fed before perhaps a first cut in the institution’s key rates in September.
The BoJ should also leave its key rate unchanged, but could reduce its program of purchasing Japanese public bonds, against a backdrop of significant weakness in the yen.
This change in the exchange rate has its advantages for Japan, but it also weighs on domestic consumption in the country, and therefore on demand-driven inflation, precisely that which the BoJ seeks to stimulate.
Setbacks for Tepco
The action of electricity supplier Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) fell 2.17%. The group will postpone until the fall, at least, the restart of a first reactor at its giant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, near Niigata (central Japan), according to information from the Sankei newspaper.
Tepco initially hoped to restart unit No. 7 of this plant this summer, but obtaining approval from local authorities has become more difficult since the deadly earthquake of January 1 in the neighboring Noto peninsula, which reignited the debate on the nuclear safety in the face of natural disasters, according to Sankei.
Euro/dollar price almost unchanged
The yen depreciated slightly against the dollar, which was worth 157.29 yen around 06:25 GMT compared to 157.04 yen on Monday at 21:00 GMT.
The euro rose to 169.38 yen against 169.05 yen the day before, and traded for 1.0768 dollars against 1.0765 dollars on Monday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
Oil was close to equilibrium: around 06:15 GMT the price of a barrel of American WTI fell barely 0.03% to 77.72 dollars and the barrel of Brent from the North Sea fell by 0.1% to 81, $55.
