Japan's Nikkei share average fell 0.7 per cent today, slipping further from a one-year high hit earlier this week as investors lock in gains from what is shaping up as its best January-March quarterly performance in 14 years.
The Nikkei has rallied 19.5 per cent since the start of January, buoyed by a run of strong US economic data and accommodative monetary policies by central banks, and investors are cashing in with the approach of the Japanese fiscal year-end.
The benchmark Nikkei eased 0.7 per cent to 10,114.79, but is still up 19.6 per cent since January. The broader Topix index fell 0.8 per cent to 857.74.
After 12 straight weeks of buying, foreign investors sold a net 242.7 billion yen ($2.93 billion) of Japanese stocks for the week through March 24th, data from Japan's Ministry of Finance showed.
Exporters, sensitive to the Japanese currency, suffered, with Toyot off 1.7 per cent, Honda losing 2 per cent and industrial robot maker Fanuc down 1.8 per cent.
Topping the list of most actively traded stocks was Sharp which climbed 6.5 per cent to a two-month high, extending the previous session's more than 15 per cent surge after it said this week it will issue shares worth $808 million to Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry.
Reuters
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