TOKYO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Tuesday as technology issues falling on Wall Street overnight led to a wide range of issues being sold here, with profit-taking after the Nikkei's sharp rise a day earlier adding to the slide.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 197.73 points, or 0.87 percent, from Monday to close the day at 22,587.01.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, fell 7.87 points, or 0.50 percent, to finish at 1,565.15.
Local brokers said investors were keen from early trade to lock in gains following the Nikkei's more-than-2-percent advance a day earlier.
They added that broader selling thereafter was triggered by a tech-linked selloff on Wall Street overnight, which saw big players like Microsoft and Amazon lose ground on concerns over surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. leading to lockdowns, including in California.
"Investors took their cue for profit-taking from Monday's decline of U.S. shares," Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., was quoted as saying.
Broader concerns over the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. weighed on the market mood here, investment analysts said, as additional lockdowns and business restrictions would further hamper the global economic recovery from the pandemic.
The Tokyo metropolitan government saying COVID-19 cases had risen from the previous day added to a downbeat mood, underscored by the central government as it was mulling issuing business suspension requests to nighttime entertainments establishments in the capital's downtown districts.
The suspension requests would be issued to establishments not taking necessary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 amid cluster concerns at some establishments, economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is also in charge of the coronavirus response, said Tuesday.
In terms of the government recently allowing the number of people to attend sports, music and other large events to be raised to 5,000 spectators, Nishimura also said the central government along with experts would reconsider this decision.
"It could be that if Tokyo reissues business restrictions, concerns over the already recession-hit economy will grow and increased market volatility will reoccur, as we saw during the state of emergency," a Tokyo-based market strategist was quoted as saying.
By the close of play, farm and fishery, air transportation and land transportation issues comprised those that declined the most.
Semiconductor issues took a hit from U.S. tech issues tanking overnight, and Tokyo Electron lost 1.5 percent, while Advantest dropped 2.4 percent. Screen Holdings, meanwhile, ended the day 2.4 percent lower.
Among other high-tech issues retreating, industrial robotics maker Fanuc fell 0.3 percent, while Fujitsu Ltd. closed 1 percent lower. Sony Corp. lost 1.9 percent as investors cashed-in following the consumer electronic firm's notable advance in the previous session.
Heavily weighted Nikkei component SoftBank Group Corp. dropped 2.1 percent, following reports it is looking into spinning off its British software and semiconductor firm Arm Holdings.
Issues that declined beat those that advanced by 1,263 to 814 on the First Section, while 94 ended the day unchanged.
On the main section on Tuesday, 1.096 billion shares changed hands, dropping from Monday's volume of 1.215 billion shares.
The turnover on the second trading day of the week came to 1.977 trillion yen (18.419 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
