Nikkei Closes Lower 1st Time Since Monday On Profit-Taking

Tokyo stocks fell back Thursday, with the Nikkei Stock Average falling 15.87 points, or 0.16%, to end the day at 9,707.37. The yen’s fall prompted investors to buy stocks, with the benchmark index briefly surpassing 9,800. But substantial selling of stock index futures slowed the gauge’s upward momentum, and a lack of fresh buying incentives spurred profit-taking, which caused the Nikkei average to fall into negative territory.

Trading value on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange totaled about 1.49 trillion yen on a preliminary basis. These data were compiled by Nikkei.com