Japanese shares slump as virus surge stokes slowdown worries

TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Japanese shares fell sharply on
Tuesday, weighed down by worries that possible reintroduction of
COVID-19 emergency measures in the country's biggest cities
would slow the economic recovery.
Selling was seen across almost all sectors, with only one of
the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry sub-indexes trading
higher and just a more than dozen stocks up on the benchmark
Nikkei share average .N225 .
The Nikkei fell 1.80% to 29,151.00 by 0141 GMT in its worst
intraday drop in almost four weeks, while the broader Topix
.TOPX dropped 1.28% to 1,931.41 in its biggest slide in two
weeks.
"It's just like the decline is bringing another sell-off
today," said Shoichi Arisawa, general manager of the investment
research department at IwaiCosmo Securities.
"There is a concern about virus resurgence not only in Japan
but also in other countries. Investors are becoming cautious
about an economic reopening, particularly since many Japanese
companies are sensitive to the global economy."
Tokyo and Osaka may slide back into states of emergency due
to a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Japan this month put these
prefectures as well as others under "quasi-states of emergency"
but those measures have done little to reverse the trend so far.
Index heavyweights Fast Retailing 9983.T , known for its
Uniqlo clothing brand, fell 1.75%, while SoftBank Group 9984.T
lost 1.2%.
Semiconductor-related stocks tracked their U.S. peers .SOX
lower, with Tokyo Electron 8035.T falling 1.88%, Advantest
6857.T dropping 3.01% and Murata Manufacturing 6981.T losing
1.32%.
Marui Group 8252.T was the biggest percentage loser on the
Nikkei with a drop of 4.84%, followed by Casio Computer
6952.T , losing 4.35%, and Hitachi Construction Machinery
6305.T , down by 4.15%.
The top percentage gainers in the index were CyberAgent Inc
4751.T , up 1.51%, Shiseido 4911.T , up 1.02%, and Nippon
Yusen 9101.T , up 0.39%.