TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Tokyo shares dropped on Thursday,
led by energy-related and cyclical stocks, as investors remained
anxious about the spread of a new flu-like virus in China and
awaited Japanese corporate earnings.
The Nikkei share average .N225 dropped 0.5% to 23,901.72
in mid-morning trade, giving up nearly all the gains made in the
previous session, while the broader Topix .TOPX fell 0.4% to
1,736.65.
A broad range of shares fell, with all but one of the Tokyo
Stock Exchange's 33 industry subindexes in negative territory.
Traders said a sharp slide in commodity prices, partly due
to worries about China's virus outbreak, weighed on
commodity-related and cyclical stocks. O/R MET/L
Deaths from China's new coronavirus rose to 17 on Wednesday,
with nearly 600 cases confirmed. The outbreak has evoked
memories of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in
2002-2003, another coronavirus which broke out in China and
killed nearly 800 people in a global pandemic. Among the Tokyo bourse's subsectors, sea transport
.ISHIP.T , mining .IMING.T and oil and coal products
.IPETE.T were the worst performing subindexes, declining by
2.0%, 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively.
Bucking the overall weak trend, semiconductor automated test
equipment (ATE) maker Advantest 6857.T jumped 4.1% after its
U.S. competitor Teradyne's TER.O fourth quarter earnings beat
estimates. In Japan, Nidec Corp 6594.T and Disco Corp 6146.T are
due to announce their financial results for the October-December
quarter later on Thursday.