TOKYO: Tokyo stocks slipped 0.21 percent by the close on Wednesday, clawing back most of their losses from earlier in the session as the dollar picked up slightly against the yen.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 28.30 points at 13,289.21, after sinking 1.84 percent by the morning break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares declined 0.42 percent, or 4.61 points, to 1,096.54.
"Foreign players are staying away from the market for a variety of reasons, including the break in the yen-weakening trend, the lack of BoJ help for the market, and the volatility," an equity trading director at a foreign brokerage told Dow Jones Newswires.
The yen had strengthened after the Bank of Japan on Tuesday opted against additional monetary easing after wrapping up its latest policy meeting, triggering a sharp rise in the safe-haven unit in US trading.
The BoJ decision stoked uncertainty about a more general winding down of central bank stimulus as markets look for clues about when the US Federal Reserve may taper off its own bond buying programme, known as quantitative easing, which was designed to stoke the world's biggest economy.
Last week, the European Central Bank and Bank of England held off fresh policy measures.
In Wednesday afternoon forex trade the dollar bounced back to 96.72 yen, up from 96.01 yen in New York but well down from the 98 yen level earlier Tuesday in Tokyo.
A stronger yen weighs on the Tokyo stock market because it makes the country's exporters less competitive overseas.
"Some buying back was evident after the BoJ clearly disappointed the market triggering a selloff which was probably overdone anyway," said Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chibagin Asset Management.
In Tokyo stock trading, Toyota was down 1.84 percent to 5,860 yen and Sony slipped 1.13 percent to 2,000 yen.
SoftBank was flat at 5,500 yen after saying Tuesday it had upped its takeover bid for US mobile carrier Sprint Nextel to $21.6 billion as it moves to trump a rival offer. (AFP)
