Tokyo stocks down by break on Trump concern

Tokyo: Tokyo stocks fell Tuesday morning as global markets are spooked by the Trump administration's controversial crackdown on immigration, sending the yen up against the dollar.

The new US president on Friday signed an executive order banning entry to travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries and imposing a temporary ban on refugees. The move was met with widespread outrage from world leaders, and global protests.

"Amid surging criticism against travel ban, market participants are contemplating that Trump has gone overboard," Toshihiko Matsuno, strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, told Bloomberg News.

In Tokyo, the dollar was changing hands at 113.52 yen, down from 113.81 yen in New York late Monday and well below 115.06 yen late Friday.

Traders have warned that safe haven assets like the yen could be favoured by investors on worries over how Trump's policies will be carried out.

A stronger yen is a negative for Japanese exporters because it makes their products less competitive abroad and shrinks repatriated profits.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.33 per cent, or 257.94 points, at 19,110.91 yen at the break, while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues fell 1.17 per cent, or 18.10 points, to 1,525.67.

Markets in New York and across Europe followed losses in Asia Monday as traders fret over the outlook for the global economy.

Before the Nikkei opened official data was released showing industrial output in December rose 0.5 per cent on month, beating market consensus, but household spending, a key element in Tokyo's economic revitalisation plans, fell for the 10th consecutive month.

During the midday break, the Bank of Japan announced it was leaving its monetary easing programme unchanged but the upgraded economic growth outlook for the current fiscal year and the following two, citing an improved global outlook and a weaker yen.

Investors are awaiting central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's news conference later in the day for fresh clues about its policy plans.

In share trading NEC plunged 15.18 per cent to 267 yen after it announced a cut in its full-year profit forecast.

Toshiba sank 2.15 per cent to 244.9 yen on concerns about its US nuclear business while Sony fell 2.02 per cent to 3,431 yen after it said it will take a writedown of nearly $1 billion in the fiscal third quarter, blaming expected weaker profits in its movie business.

Toyota shed 1.49 per cent to 6,605 yen while Honda lost 2.86 per cent to 3,385 yen after it announced plans with General Motors for the first "mass production" of an advanced hydrogen fuel cell system.