Tokyo stocks fell sharply Wednesday on the selling of technology issues following a rally the previous day, with a share buyback announcement from Toyota Motor Corp. failing to reverse the downward trend.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended down 632.73 points, or 1.63 percent, from Tuesday at 38,202.37. The broader Topix index finished 39.79 points, or 1.45 percent, lower at 2,706.43.
On the top-tier Prime Market, decliners were led by insurance, wholesale trade and electric appliance issues.
The U.S. dollar rose to the lower 155 yen range in Tokyo on expectations that the interest rate differential between Japan and the United States will remain wide, although concerns persisted over a potential intervention by Japanese authorities to arrest the yen's slide, dealers said.
Stocks opened lower and extended their losses, with the Nikkei benchmark briefly shedding nearly 700 points, as technology issues tracked overnight declines in their U.S. counterparts, while investors locked in gains after Tuesday's advance.
The declines were briefly trimmed after Toyota announced a share buyback plan, in line with its robust earnings results as its operating profit almost doubled in fiscal 2023 from a year earlier to top 5 trillion yen, the first time a Japanese company has passed the milestone.
But it failed to reverse the overall trend in the market, with the auto giant's earnings outlook for the current business year coming short of market expectations. Toyota ended the day down 0.6 percent at 3,579 yen after erasing earlier gains.
"Investors moved to lock in recent gains even though Toyota's earnings report was not bad," said Toshikazu Horiuchi, equity strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities Co.
