Tokyo stocks finish lower as investors lock in gains from 2-day surge

TOKYO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks finished lower on Thursday as market investors remained on the sidelines ahead of key events in the United States, including a policy meeting of the Federal Reserve next week, and moved to lock in gains after a 2-day surge.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average finished 135.15 points, or 0.47 percent, lower from Wednesday at 28,725.47.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed 11.45 points, or 0.57 percent, lower at 1,990.79.

Trading volume on the main section decreased to 984.72 million shares from Wednesday's 1,219.77 million shares.

Tokyo stocks moved without a clear direction at the beginning of the market but later dropped to negative territory and expanded losses in the afternoon as investors secured gains from a surge in the past two trading days.

Earlier this week, Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, suggested that the Omicron variant may not be as severe as initially thought, which triggered a near 3 percent rebound in the Nikkei index after the market sentiment was hit hard by fears over the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., said, "The Nikkei rose over 930 points in the past two days based on a series of optimistic reports about the Omicron variant. It's natural that investors thought it was about time to lock in gains."

He added that trading volume was lower than usual, indicating that market participants took a wait-and-see stance ahead of the two-day Fed meeting starting Tuesday and the U.S. consumer price index for November due out Friday.

By the close of play, precision instruments, textile and apparel, and metal product firms were major decliners. Losing issues outnumbered gaining ones 1,362 to 735 on the First Section, while 87 finished unchanged.

Automakers Toyota Motor and Honda Motor ended down 0.6 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, after reports that they have been sued by a U.S. patent management company for alleged patent infringements over their use of communications technologies for network-connected cars.

SoftBank Group gained 1.1 percent as investors bought its shares following Wednesday's drop.

After an announcement by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. said that the third shot of its COVID-19 vaccine could offer sufficient protection against the Omicron variant, the air transportation sector gained ground, with ANA Holdings rising 0.3 percent and Japan Airlines gaining 0.9 percent.