Japan Shares Fall Nearly 2% on Election Fears And Evergrande

Japan’s Nikkei index fell nearly 2% at the close of today’s session, pressured by fresh concerns about China’s Evergrande Group anxiety ahead of a general election and concerns about the impact of rising costs on the future of companies.

“The ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) would probably win a majority but it is not clear whether the party would make changes that would meet market expectations,” said Ikuo Mitsui, a fund manager at Aizawa Securities.

The Nikkei index closed down 1.87% at 28,708.58 points, while the broader Topix index lost 1.13 percent and went down to 2000.81 points.

Last night, the US Standard & Poor’s and Dow indices rose, but the Nasdaq fell as technology stocks took a breath.

The Nasdaq’s closing down triggered a sell-off in Japanese technology heavyweights as investors anxiously await whether Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will take decisive action to shore up the pandemic-ridden economy.

Shares of China’s Evergrande, listed in Hong Kong and wracked by a debt crisis, lost 12% on Thursday when the company resumed trading after a hiatus of more than two weeks.

The share of Tokyo Electron, the electronic chip-making equipment, pushed the Nikkei down the most, as the stock fell 4.61 percent. Shares of Fast Retailing, operator of Uniqlo clothing, lost 2.98 percent, and SoftBank Group fell 2.06%.