Nikkei falls from two-month highs

Japan’s Nikkei closed lower on Monday after hitting a two-month high in the previous session, as investors booked profits and market heavyweight SoftBank Group fell after its investment arm Vision Fund reported another big quarterly loss.

The Nikkei index closed down 1.06 percent to 27,963.47 points, while the broader Topix index fell 1.05 percent to 1956.90.

The benchmark index closed up 3 percent on Friday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also extended their gains on hopes that the Federal Reserve would take a less hawkish stance on raising interest rates due to the weak inflation reading.

SoftBank Group’s stock fell 12.73 percent, its biggest daily drop in more than two and a half years, after the technology investor suffered a huge loss in the investment arm Vision Fund for the third consecutive quarter.

SoftBank shares had the worst impact on the Nikkei, followed by Olympus, which plunged 10.81 percent after the medical equipment maker cut its annual operating profit forecast.

Contrasting the downward trend, Toto, which rose 6.03 percent, became the biggest gainer on the Nikkei index, while Shiseido cosmetics rose 5.23 percent.