All industry categories of Topix index declined, with Iron & Steel, Securities & Commodities Futures, Nonferrous Metals, Marine Transportation, Air Transportation, and Banks issues being notable losers.
Financial markets have been on a roller coaster as investors grapple with the potential economic damage caused by fractured supply chains, travel bans and the disruption of daily life. The viral outbreak that was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December has sickened nearly 98,000 people and claimed at least 3,300 lives so far, spreading around the globe.
The infectious disease is an exogenous factor that economists and investors are finding difficult to model. There is little clarity about how long it will take governments and health officials to contain the virus, leading to a gloomy prognosis for global economic growth.
In China, where the number of new infections has been slowing drastically, stocks trading in Shanghai have rallied nearly 12% since hitting a bottom on Feb. 3. Factories there are gradually reopening, and a return to a sense of normal life may even be on the horizon following swift and severe actions by the government to corral the virus. But elsewhere in the world, the mood is darker. There are about 17 times as many new infections outside China as in it, according to the World Health Organization.
Exporters and banks were lower, with Toyota down 3.1%, Sony down 3.2%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial off 4%, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial down 3.7%.
Seven and i Holdings surged 5.9% after a report the convenience store and supermarket operator scrapped plans to acquire the US oil refining firm Marathon Petroleum's Speedway gas stations for US$22 billion.
CURRENCY NEWS: The Japanese yen, often seen as a save-haven in times of economic uncertainty, traded at 105.87 yen in late Tokyo hours, against 106.14 yen in New York on Thursday.
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