The Tokyo stock exchange closed slightly lower on Tuesday due to significant price losses among Japanese steel companies.
The hopes of recovery of the Japanese economy, now that the vaccination program in the country seems to be getting underway provided some support to the stock trade. The Japanese government wants to speed up the vaccination campaign and start vaccinating in workplaces and universities from June 21. They also looked forward to US manufacturing growth figures, which will be released later in the day.
The Nikkei in Tokyo ended 0.2 percent in the minus at 28,814.34 points. JFE Holdings and Nippon Steel were among the largest decliners, with losses of more than 4 percent. Renesas climbed more than 3 percent.
The chipmaker expects that the chip factory where the fire broke out in March will be back to total capacity around mid-June. The industrial companies IHI and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries benefited from positive analyst reports from Nomura Securities and rose more than 3 and almost 6 percent.
The stock market indicator in Shanghai was down 0.1 percent in the meantime. According to market researchers Caixin and Markit, activity in the Chinese industry rose in May to the highest level since December.
A day earlier, official figures from the Chinese government showed that the growth of activity in the manufacturing industry had slowed slightly in May compared to April. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.5 percent. The All Ordinaries in Sydney fell 0.1 percent after the Australian central bank decided to leave rates unchanged. The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.4 percent.