Tokyo shares end lower on auto export slump, geopolitical tensions

TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks ended lower on
Wednesday as automakers dragged following weak export data,
while escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea
also doused the market sentiment.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 closed 0.56% lower to
22,455.76, while the broader Topix lost 0.40% to 1,587.09. The
Nikkei had posted its biggest intraday percentage gain in three
months in the previous session.
Japan's exports shrank to the lowest levels in a decade as
shipments of automobile to the United States slumped. This
offset optimism around an overnight rally on Wall Street, where
all three major U.S. stocks hit third consecutive daily gains.
MKTS/GLOB Shares of export-oriented automakers underperformed, with
Mazda Motor 7261.T dropping 4.34%, Suzuki Motor 7269.T down
3.13% and Mitsubishi Motor 7211.T falling 3.07%.
Investors were also rattled by escalating tensions between
North Korea and South Korea after North Korea demolished an
inter-Korean liaison office and rejected an offer by South Korea
to send special envoys, vowing to send troops back to the
border. On the Nikkei index, there were 32 advancers against 186
decliners.
As concerns about the coronavirus progress resurfaced,
highly cyclical airlines .IAIRL.T went down 2.22% and textiles
.ITXTL.T falling 1.68%
"Worries about a 'second wave' and hopes for a global
economic recovery have been playing tug of wars," said Hideyuki
Ishiguro, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
Bucking the overall weakness, SoftBank Group 9984.T surged
5.02% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Japanese
technology company plans to sell "a significant portion" of its
stake in T-Mobile TMUS.O to controlling shareholder Deutsche
Telekom AG DTEGn.DE . Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co Ltd 4541.T , a generic
pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells dexamethasone, gained
4.68% after a preliminary trial results in the United Kingdom
showed that this steroid drug reduced death rates by around a
third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients.
In the startup market, the Mothers Index .MTHR climbed
2.13%.