The flagship Nikkei index lost 0.37% to 28,051.70 points at the close and the broader Topix index lost 0.18% to 1,973.90 points.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange fell slightly on Thursday, following digesting the announcements the day before from the American Federal Reserve (Fed), which slowed the pace of its rate hikes as expected but appeared less optimistic.
The flagship Nikkei index lost 0.37% to 28,051.70 points at the close and the broader Topix index lost 0.18% to 1,973.90 points.
Losses were more severe on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (-1.43% following 0700 GMT), demoralized by the Fed but also by the fall in retail sales in China in November, more severe than expected (-5.9% over a year).
The Fed on Wednesday raised its main interest rate by half a percentage point, following having increased it by three-quarters of a point the four previous times, to control the highest inflation in the United States for 40 years.
Rising prices have recently shown “a welcome slowdown” but “it will take significantly more evidence” to confirm this trend, warned Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
The Central Bank will therefore continue its monetary tightening, showing itself to be a little less optimistic regarding the trend in US inflation next year and much more pessimistic than before regarding national GDP growth.
On the side of values
TECH: Japanese tech stocks were hit by confirmation of prolonged monetary tightening by the Fed. Sony, for example, fell 0.94% to 11,045 yen and the industrial automation group Keyence dropped 1.82% to 56,340 yen.
On the side of currencies and oil
The dollar rose a little once morest the yen, at the rate of one dollar for 135.69 yen around 07:00 GMT once morest 135.48 yen on Wednesday at 21:00 GMT.
The euro weakened to 144.55 yen once morest 144.72 yen the day before, and fell to 1.0653 dollars once morest 1.0682 dollars on Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. GMT.
In the oil market, which had climbed so far since the start of the week, the barrel of American WTI lost 0.88% to 76.60 dollars and the barrel of Brent from the North Sea dropped 0.73% at $82.10.
