Tokyo's Nikkei closes down for fourth straight session

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index closed down for a fourth consecutive session Thursday, extending falls on Wall Street on rising concerns over escalating coronavirus cases in the northern hemisphere.

The Nikkei 225 index lost 0.37 per cent, or 86.57 points, to 23,331.94, while the broader Topix index was down 0.10 per cent, or 1.62 points, at 1,610.93.

"Declines in European and US shares on worries over coronavirus infections weighed on the Japanese market," Toshikazu Horiuchi, a broker at IwaiCosmo Securities, told AFP.

Epidemiologists have been warning for weeks that European governments have lost control of the latest outbreaks, making lockdowns almost inevitable.

Horiuchi also said trading was expected to remain stagnant for now as investors "refrain from taking long positions ahead of the US presidential election".

The dollar fetched 104.36 yen in Asian afternoon trade, against 104.31 yen in New York.

The market shrugged off the Bank of Japan's bleak outlook for the Japanese economy due to the impact of the pandemic.

In Tokyo, Central Japan Railway dropped 2.40 per cent to 13,000 yen after it announced a worse-than-expected full-year operating loss forecast.

East Japan Railway was also down 2.37 per cent at 5,602 yen after its second-quarter operating loss was worse than market expectations.

Panasonic gained 1.79 per cent to 915.5 yen ahead of its first-half earnings announcement later Thursday.

Sony rallied 6.69 per cent to 8,800 yen after the electronics and gaming giant revised up its full-year forecast citing growth in key sectors.

Hitachi was up 4.28 per cent at 3,699 yen after it booked a better-than-expected second-quarter operating profit.