Japan’s Nikkei index snapped a seven-day winning streak on Monday, dragged down by Wall Street’s slide in the previous session, as investors awaited U.S. gross domestic product data and this week’s Federal Reserve meeting.
The Nikkei index fell 0.77% to close at 27,699.25, retreating from Friday’s six-week high.
The broader TOPICS index fell 0.65 percent to 1,943.21 points.
Investors are now focusing on the Fed meeting and US Q2 GDP data this week. With the US Federal Reserve expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, GDP data will again be negative.
“Investors want to gauge the direction of stock markets after learning about the results of the US Federal Open Market Committee and GDP,” said Iko Mitsui, director at Aizawa Securities.
“Looking at the PMI data released last week, it is clear that the economy is slowing down,” he added.
Business activity in the United States, the world’s biggest economy, contracted this month for the first time in nearly two years, euro zone activity fell for the first time in more than a year and growth in Britain was at its lowest level in 17 months, purchasing managers’ surveys showed last week.
In Japan, shares of electrical component maker Yaskawa fell 4.06 percent, followed by pharmaceutical firm Eisai, which lost 3.74 percent. Shares of Nikon Corp fell 3.08 percent.
The railway sector rose 1.72 percent among 33 sub-indexes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Railway companies including Tokyo Corp and Tobu Railway posted profits and were among the top performers on the Nikkei.
The utilities sector was generally the strongest sector, rising 0.61 percent.
(Reuters)