Nikkei Hits 3-Week Intraday Low

Tokyo stocks fell Wednesday, with the Nikkei index briefly dropping to a three-week intraday low, as the yen's rise against the US dollar and weak overseas stock performances dampened investor sentiment. 
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average shed 141.48 points, or 0.86%, from Tuesday to close the session at 16,249.97, Nikkei Asian Review reported. 
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 18.10 points, or 1.39%, to 1,282.10. 
Major decliners were brokerage, bank and utility issues. 
Tokyo stocks got off to a weak start, tracing losses in European and US shares overnight. The Nikkei sank to as low as 16,138.72 shortly after the opening, its lowest intraday level since July 12. 
Market players also grew cautious over the impact of a higher yen on Japanese export-oriented companies' earnings as the dollar slumped to a three-week low in the 100 yen zone overnight. 
After an initial round of selling, the benchmark index recouped its losses toward the end of the morning session, helped by the dollar's rebound to the lower 101 yen range as well as a gain in share prices of some major companies with positive earnings news, such as KDDI and Mitsubishi. 
Tsutomu Yamada, market analyst at kabu.com Securities Co., said the yen's recent appreciation continued to depress investor sentiment, but the fall in share prices was not so large given the Bank of Japan's plan to roughly double its purchases of exchange-traded funds to an annual pace of about 6 trillion yen. 
"Considering the degree of the yen's recent rise, stocks didn't fall much," he said, referring to investors' hopes that the Tokyo stock market will draw support from the BOJ's enhanced ETF-buying program going forward. 
On the First Section, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 1,654 to 241, while 73 ended the morning unchanged. 
Among major decliners, brokerage shares remained under selling pressure, with Nomura Holdings falling 16.70 yen, or 3.8%, to 418.60 yen while Daiwa Securities Group shed 12.90 yen, or 2.3 percent, to 552.40 yen.