Japan's Nikkei tracks Wall Street declines, BOJ comments drag
TOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters) -Japanese shares were under fresh pressure on Thursday as domestic chip stocks followed a slide on Wall Street overnight and as more details from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) pointed to hawkishness and further monetary tightening.
The Nikkei index .N225 was only marginally weaker following its plunge on Monday and subsequent recovery. It looked fragile, however, with expectations of a revival in yen carry trades being unwound after the central bank's release of minutes of its July meeting.
Some BOJ board members called for the need to keep raising interest rates, with one saying they should eventually be increased to at least around 1%, a summary of opinions voiced at the July 30-31 meeting showed on Thursday.
At the July meeting, the BOJ raised its short-term policy target to 0.25% from a range of 0% to 0.1%.
Markets had rallied and the yen JPY= had slipped on Wednesday when the BOJ's influential Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida said the bank will not hike rates when markets are unstable.
At 0200 GMT, the Nikkei index was down 1% at 34,725.30. The broader Topix .TOPX fell 0.77% to 2,469.98.
All three U.S. main indexes went red on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq falling 1% as technology shares declined and weak demand in a 10-year Treasury auction stoked investor jitters in choppy trade.
"The domestic market will continue to go up and down for a while as investors continue to look for an appropriate level of the Nikkei for a while," said Shuutarou Yasuda, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory.
"Today the declines were limited as stocks with robust earnings outcome rose," Yasuda said.
Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest 6857.T fell 5.69%, making it the biggest drag on the Nikkei. Chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron 8035.T fell 1%.
Lasertec 6920.T surged 22% to provide the biggest support after the microchip equipment maker said its annual net profit will likely rise 25%.
Nitori Holdings 9843.T rose 8% after the home interior goods retailer said its quarterly recurring profit rose 7.5%.
Fuji Soft 9749.T was untraded amid glut of buy orders after local media reported U.S. investment fund KKR & Co KKR.N plans to help the software developer go private under a management buyout worth about 600 billion yen ($4.09 billion).
($1 = 146.6100 yen)
Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Christopher Cushing
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