Nikkei index dips for 2nd day under pressure from chip stocks

Japanese Nikkei index ended trading today, Friday, lower, affected by the acceleration of declines in stocks related to chips, which track the impact of their counterparts in the United States.

According to “Reuters”, the shares of the semiconductor industry giants Tokyo Electron and Advantest fell 5.6% and 5.8%, respectively, which erased about 200 points from the Nikkei index.

The Nikkei index fell 186 points, or 0.57%, to 32,304.25 points.

In contrast, the broader Topix index, which does not focus much on technology stocks, rose 0.06%.

Screen Holdings, a maker of chip components, and Renesas Electronics, a maker of chips, fell 4.9% and 2.5%, respectively.

This comes after the Philadelphia Semiconductor index fell 3.6 percent last night, in the worst daily performance this year.

The large losses incurred by chip stocks on Friday erased the impact of the rise in shares of the automaker Nidec, which rose 10.4 percent on the back of positive data.

Energy stocks were the best performers, and its sub-index rose 1.4%, supported by the rise in crude oil prices.