2,022.16. "The market had no clear cues so investors were selling outperforming stocks and buying underperforming ones," said Shoichi Arisawa, general manager of the investment research department at IwaiCosmo Securities.
"Wall Street was strong overnight, lifted by energy stocks, but in Japan we do not have the real equivalent of those U.S. stocks that would benefit from oil price gains."
Overnight, the S&P 500 ended higher, lifted by energy stocks following surprise cuts to the OPEC+ group's oil output. The S&P 500 energy sector index surged 4.9%
In Japan, the utility sector gained 1.46%, with Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings climbing 2.49%. Kansai Electric Power rose 2.16%.
Energy explorers , which surged 5% in the previous session, gained 0.74%. Chipmaking equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 0.51%. Air-conditioning maker Daikin Industries gained 0.92%.
Videogame maker Nintendo advanced 2.86% to become the best performer on the Nikkei. Shipping firms rose 1.62% to become the top performer among the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry sub-indexes. Shimamura tanked 5.8% after the clothing retailer's forecast for annual operating profit was below consensus.
"When there are little market moving cues, investors become
sensitive to the corporate outlook," Arisawa said.
(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
