TOKYO, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower on Tuesday after inheriting a weak lead from Wall Street overnight as subpar U.S. manufacturing data sparked concerns over the outlook for the world's largest economy.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 149.69 points, or 0.64 percent, from Monday to close the day at 23,379.81.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, fell 7.76 points, or 0.45 percent, to finish at 1,706.73.
Local brokers said investor sentiment was dampened from the get-go by worse-than-expected factory output data in the United States, sparking concerns about the health of the world's largest economy and seeing the Nikkei fall more than 300 points in the morning session.
They highlighted that the United States and European shares slumped overnight following the Institute for Supply Management's monthly survey showing the index measuring domestic factory activity in the United States dropped to 48.1 in November from 48.3 in October.
"The outcome disappointed market players as they had expected it would improve from the previous month amid a recovery in Chinese manufacturing data," Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co., was quoted as saying.
Concerns about new manufacturing orders and exports in the United States, Washington reimposing metals tariffs on Brazil and Argentina, coupled with subpar factory data from the European Union, saw investors in a predominantly risk-off mood, market strategists here also said.
Losses were pared in later trade however, as Shanghai shares' solid performance encouraged some investors to buyback Japanese stocks deemed oversold in earlier trade, with selling by-in-large running its course as investors hit the sidelines to await further cues, investment strategists here said.
Some metals and cyclical issues lost ground owing to concerns over the health of the U.S. economy, with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines sinking 1.2 percent, while JFE Holdings lost 0.7 percent.
Defensive shares also took a hit, with Nisshin Group falling 2.7 percent and Kikkoman Corp. ending the day 3.4 percent lower.
Japan Railways, meanwhile, retreated 1.3 percent by the close.
In terms of issues moving on individual news, Nissan Motor skidded down 1.5 percent after its new CEO Makoto Uchida suggested the automaker's medium-term business plan might be downwardly revised.
Astellas Pharma closed 1.1 percent lower after agreeing to acquire Audentes Therapeutics Inc. for around 3 billion U.S. dollars.
Nomura Holdings edged down 0.2 percent, after hitting more than a one year high in earlier trade, after the group's new CEO Kentaro Okuda was picked to lead a turnaround of the group's overseas operations.
Bucking the downward trend, Nintendo climbed 2.7 percent on continued hopes for rising end of year sales, particularly of its Switch games console and related software.
By the close of play, farm and fishery, iron and steel, and land transportation-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,540 to 551 on the First Section, with 66 ending the day unchanged.
On the main section on Tuesday, 1,074.75 million shares changed hands, rising from Monday's volume of 946.96 million shares.
The turnover on the second trading day of the week came to 1,956.6 billion yen (17.94 billion U.S. dollars).
