TOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) - Japanese shares slipped on
Wednesday, tracking overnight Wall Street losses, as investors
monitored surging coronavirus cases across the world that could
derail a nascent global economic recovery.
The benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 ended down 0.78%
at 22,438.65 after moving in and out of positive territory in
early session, with 40 advancers against 177 decliners.
New coronavirus cases continue to climb globally, with the
United States surpassing over 3 million confirmed cases across
states and Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne re-imposing
lockdown measures on Tuesday. On the domestic front, capital Tokyo has also seen a rise in
cases, but Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said a new state
of emergency for the coronavirus is not needed. The broader Topix .TOPX erased early gains and dipped
0.92% to 1,557.23, with all 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo
exchange trading in the red.
Highly cyclical mining .IMING.T and insurance .IINSU.T
were among the worst performers on the main bourse, down 2.9%
and 1.43%, respectively.
OLED manufacturer Hodogaya Chemical Co Ltd 4112.T
performed strongly, soaring 15.56%, after a media report that
Apple Inc AAPL.O will shift to OLED screens for its
fifth-generation iPhones this year. Elsewhere on the market, mall operator Aeon Mall Co Ltd
8905.T , which had temporarily closed its facilities following
the coronavirus outbreak, dropped 6.26%.
The company posted a group net loss of 13.48 billion yen
($125.35 million) for the March-May quarter and projected a 4
billion yen loss for the fiscal year ending February.
Bucking the overall weakness, start-up market index Mothers
.MTHR inched up 0.14%.
($1 = 107.5400 yen)