By Hc Div Reuters
TOKYO: Japan鈥檚 Nikkei share average surrendered early gains to close lower on Friday as sharp declines in Fast Retailing led technology stocks to erase their gains.
The Nikkei slipped 0.19% to 39,569.68 after rising as much as 0.8% earlier in the session. The index fell 0.6% this week.
The broader Topix rose 0.39% to 2,823.24.
Fast Retailing tanked 6.93% after the Uniqlo brand owner said on Thursday higher US tariffs would start impacting its US operations significantly from later this year and that it plans to raise prices to mitigate the blow.
鈥淚nvestors were worried about Fast Retailing鈥檚 outlook for the next fiscal year. Still, gains of technology stocks supported the index,鈥 said Kentaro Hayashi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
The market also sold stocks as soon as the Nikkei approached the psychologically important level of 40,000, strategists said.
Chip-related Advantest and Tokyo Electron rose 0.71% and 0.9%, respectively, to track a 0.75% gain in the Philadelphia SE Semicond