Nikkei index closed lower affected by a decline in Uniqlo sales

Japan’s Nikkei index closed lower on Wednesday, affected by a decline in the shares of Fast Retailing, which owns the Uniqlo supermarket chain, in addition to a decline on Wall Street on Tuesday night.

According to Reuters, shares of technology companies fell, tracking their counterparts in the United States, and the strong earthquake that shook Taiwan had only a limited impact on Japanese chip shares.

The Nikkei index closed down 0.97 percent to 39,451.85 points, after falling earlier in the session to its lowest level since March 18 at 39,217.04 points.

Fast Retailing, a heavyweight in the index, lost 3.34% over other influential stocks, becoming the largest contributor to the Nikkei’s decline, as it contributed about 154 points to the index’s total decline of 387 points.

The stock fell from an unprecedented high reached earlier in the week after the company late Tuesday reported its first quarterly decline in domestic Uniqlo outlet sales.

Shares of major technology companies fell, such as Advantest, a maker of chip testing equipment, whose shares fell 2.14%, while Nintendo lost more than 4.0%. SoftBank Group shares fell 1.24%.

Long-term US Treasury bond yields jumped on Tuesday night to the highest level since November by more than 4.4%.

The performance of technology companies’ stocks is negatively affected by rising interest rates.

The broader Topix index fell 0.29%.

The Japanese stock index reached an all-time high of 41,087.75 points on March 22 after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time since 2007 and maintained a more hawkish stance.