The Nikkei 225 Index Closes 0.68% Lower
The Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.68% to close at 36,582 while the broader Topix Index lost 0.82% to 2,571 on Friday, paring gains from the previous session as the yen strengthened on hawkish signals from the Bank of Japan, pressuring equities.
BOJ board member Naoki Tamura said on Thursday that the central bank must push up short-term rates to at least around 1% through fiscal 2026 to stably achieve the 2% inflation target. Fitch also revised its forecasts for Japan's policy rate, now seeing it at 0.5% by the end of 2024, 0.75% in 2025 and 1% by end-2026.
A stronger yen hurts the profit outlook for Japan's export-heavy industries and forces investors to unwind yen carry trades. Notable losses were seen from index heavyweights like SoftBank Group (-0.8%), Toyota Motor (-2.3%), Fast Retailing (-1.4%), Sony Group (-1.2%) and Recruit Holdings (-1.1%). Still, the Nikkei gained 0.52% this week, while the Topix lost 1.01%.
Source : Trading Economics
