Japan Market falls on profit booking, Fed, trade talks in focus

Headline shares of the Japan share market closed down on Monday, 29 July 2019, as investors sold issues that had advanced recently to lock in profits amid corporate earnings season and on caution ahead of the hotly anticipated US Federal Reserve meeting and to see any developments US-China trade talks this week. Falls in Chinese shares also weighed on the Japanese market. Total 20 subsectors out of 33 subsectors of the Topix's index declined, with Rubber Products, Electric Appliances, Metal Products, Securities & Commodities Futures, and Glass & Ceramics Products issues being notable losers, while Marine Transportation, Electric Power & Gas, Fishery, Agriculture & Forestry, and Information & Communication were notable gainers. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 41.35 points, or 0.2%, to 21,616.80, while the broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange sank 2.95 points, or 0.2%, at 1,568.57.

Shares of exporters were broadly lower, with Honda dropping 0.8% to 2,763.5 yen and chipmaking equipment producer Tokyo Electron closing down 0.8% at 18,150 yen.

Hitachi was off 2.6% at 3,830 yen, industrial robot maker Fanuc was down 1.6% at 19,265 yen and construction machine maker Komatsu ended down 0.3% at 2,440.5 yen ahead of their earnings reports after the close of the market Monday.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan Retail Sales Unchanged In June -- Japan retail sales was roughly unchanged in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Monday, following the upwardly revised 0.4% gain in May (originally 0.3%). On a yearly basis, retail sales advanced 0.5% following the upwardly revised 1.3% jump in the previous month.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe-haven currency, traded at 108.57 against the dollar after weakening from levels below 108 in the previous trading week

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