The Japanese Stock Exchange Closed Slightly Lower on Tuesday

The Japanese stock exchange closed slightly lower on Tuesday. Investors slowed down a bit after the substantial advance the day before.

A record drop in spending by Japanese households in May caused investors to hold back. The other stock market indicators in the Asian region showed a mixed picture after the rally the day before.

The leading Nikkei in Tokyo ended the day with a loss of 0.4 percent at 22,614.69 points. Japanese household spending plummeted 16.2 percent in May due to the corona pandemic. That was the most substantial decrease ever.

At the companies, the Japanese department store Takashimaya fell 2.6 percent after a sharp quarterly loss. SoftBank continued to advance, rising 4.6 percent to its highest level in 20 years thanks to the extensive share buyback program of the Japanese telecom group and tech investor.

The main index in Shanghai continued to improve after the price jump of nearly 6 percent on Monday, rising 1.6 percent in the meantime. In Hong Kong, however, the Hang Seng index declined by a minus 0.4 percent. The Kospi in Seoul lost 0.9 percent.

The South Korean technology giant Samsung fell about 2 percent despite better than expected preliminary quarterly figures. The All Ordinaries in Sydney climbed 0.4 percent after the Australian central bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.25 percent, as expected.