Japanese Stocks Under Pressure, Nikkei Falls 2.8%
Newsmaker.id - Japanese stocks fell sharply on Friday, following Wall Street's overnight decline. The Nikkei 225 index fell around 2.8% to below 65,000, while the Topix index weakened 1.3% to around 3,975.
Pressure came primarily from technology and semiconductor stocks after the Philadelphia chip index on Wall Street plunged 4.3%. The Nasdaq also fell 1.47% as investors resumed selling technology stocks that had previously recorded strong gains.
In Japan, shares of Kioxia Holdings plunged around 15%, SoftBank Group fell 6.3%, Advantest fell 5.9%, and Tokyo Electron lost 4.5%. Investors are beginning to question whether the high valuations of chip and artificial intelligence companies are still in line with the industry's growth prospects.
In addition to the weakening technology sector, the escalating conflict between the United States and Iran has also worsened market sentiment. These tensions have pushed oil prices higher and reignited concerns about global inflation and interest rates. The Nikkei is now headed for a weekly decline of nearly 6%, while the Topix is likely to drop by around 2%.
The main causes are the sell-off in semiconductor stocks on Wall Street, concerns about high valuations of AI stocks, and rising geopolitical and inflation risks stemming from the US-Iran conflict. (CP)
