The stock market in Tokyo fell sharply on Thursday. Tech companies, in particular, were hit by the significant price loss of the American tech gauge Nasdaq.
Investors sold the shares of technology companies that have significantly benefited from the corona crisis and got into companies expected to benefit more from a recovery in the economy. A sharp rise in bond market yields fueled concerns about high valuations in the tech sector.
The Nikkei in Tokyo ended with a loss of 2.1 percent at 28,930.11 points. Tech investor SoftBank, a significant share in the Japanese main index, fell 5 percent. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron and chip tester Advantest lost more than 2 percent. Sea transport companies such as Kawasaki Kisen and Mitsui OSK Lines, which are expected to benefit from an improving economy, have increased by up to 5 percent.
The Japanese Hitachi Zosen made a price jump of almost 20 percent. According to media reports, the company has developed a high-performance so-called solid-state battery. Solid-state batteries charge faster and last longer and have shown great promise in the automotive industry for electric vehicle sales for years.
The sell-off in the tech sector also caused price pressure on the stock exchange in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index lost more than 2 percent in the meantime. Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and Alibaba fell to 3.8 percent in Hong Kong. SMIC, on the other hand, won 0.7 percent.
The Chinese chipmaker, which has been blacklisted by Washington, extended an old framework agreement with the Dutch chip machine maker ASML until the end of the year. In South Korea, tech group Samsung lost more than 1 percent, and chipmaker SK Hynix lost 3 percent. The Kospi in Seoul was 1.1 percent in the min.