TOKYO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Wednesday as investors opted to take profits in cautious trading ahead of the release of earnings reports from major companies and the 10-day Golden Week string off national holidays.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 59.74 points, or 0.27 percent, from Tuesday to close the day at 22,200.00.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, dropped 10.92 points, or 0.67 percent, to finish at 1,612.05.
Following U.S. shares advancing overnight, trading got off to a relatively bright start, with technology and pharmaceutical issues here tracking their peers' gains on Wall Street, traders here said.
They added however, that once the market peaked at its highest level for the year in morning trade, investors squared away positions ahead of the coming 10-day Golden Week holiday, and, amid a cautious mood, with a slew of corporate earnings due to be released, opted not to chase the market higher.
Makoto Sengoku, market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute said that investors were in a cautious mood and took the Nikkei's latest jump in early trade as a signal to dump their riskier assets.
"With the Nikkei staying at a high for the year, investors saw it as a good opportunity to unload their holdings to avert risks," Sengoku was quoted as saying.
He also noted that not chasing the market higher on the back of U.S. shares advancing overnight was representative of how cautious the market mood is becoming ahead of the Golden Week holidays.
By the close of play, electric power and gas, securities house and transportation equipment-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,510 to 547 on the First Section, while 79 ended unchanged.
On the main section on Wednesday, 1,213.58 million shares changed hands, rising from Tuesday's volume of 995.23 million shares.
The turnover on the third trading day of the week came to 2,322.9 billion yen (20.76 billion U.S. dollars).
