Japanese stocks suffer from anxiety brought by US tariffs implementation

TOKYO-Japanese shares inched down on Tuesday brought by threats of US tariffs on Chinese imports despite developments and positive commentary from Washington and Beijing’s trade talks.

The Nikkei index plummeted down 0.18% to 23,388.92 at exactly 0157 GMT, as industrial and consumer discretionary sectors topped the decliner board.

Both Washington and Beijing remained diplomatic as new US tariffs implementation on $156 billion worth of Chinese goods on Dec. 15 loomed. In line with this, China is looking forward on signing “phase one” as soon as possible as US President Donald Trump said the US government is smoothly furnishing out the pact with China.

Some traders are following US Federal Reserve meeting on Dec. 11 as Fed is anticipated to hold interest rates on restriction. In this light, traders were set to analyze Fed’s statement and its economic outlook for hints about incoming policy decisions.

A total of 59 gainers against 153 decliners were recorded on the Nikkei index.

Biggest setbacks were acquired by chemical maker Tokuyama Corp, Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, and internet services company DeNa Co Ltd with 3.5%, 2.73% and 2.46% respective loss.

Marine company Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd topped advancers board with 3.07% gains, followed by Casio Computer Co Ltd with 2.42% earnings, and Nippon Sheet Co Ltd with 2.33% increase.

The broader Topix index suffered with 0.11 loss to 1,720.48.

A total of 0.41 billion were traded on Tokyo Stock’s Exchange, compared to 1.25 billion in the past 30 days.