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By Stanley White
TOKYO, 5 Aug (Reuters) – Japanese stocks fell wednesday after reaching a maximum of one week, as poor reports of functionality underscored the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and a stronger yen for exporters.
The Nikkei index fell 0.63% to 22,431.23 at 0221 GMT, with the discretionary customer and telecommunications sectors leading the falls.
The broader Topix fell 0.64% to 1,545.32
The Nikkei has recovered 37% since this year’s low in March, but has recently struggled to succeed over the resistance by around 23,000, as investors distrust more of emerging cases of coronavirus at home and abroad.
Noting that they have an effect on the pandemic, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG), Japan’s largest asset lender, announced Tuesday that its net profit had more than halved.
MUFG shares fell 0.7% on Wednesday.
Sony Corp, another major company to report earnings on Tuesday, traded 1.5% lower as worries over its future earnings eclipsed better-than-expected results from the company.
More Japanese are expected to report their earnings in the coming days.
There were 56 advancers on the Nikkei index against 165 decliners.
The underperformers among the top 30 core Topix names were SoftBank Group Corp, down 3.78%, followed by East Japan Railway Co, losing 3.73%.
Among the top 30 topix shares were game maker Nintendo Co Ltd, 2.73% more than Thursday’s earnings, followed by commercial conglomerate Hitachi Ltd.
The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s main table of 0.26 billion, compared to an average of 1.2 billion in the last 30 days. (Reporting through Stanley White; Edited through Aditya Soni)