TOKYO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Monday, decreasing consecutively in four trading days, as concerns of a slow economic recovery in the United States and the recent surge of COVID-19 infections in Tokyo dragged down market sentiment.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average finished 350.34 points, or 1.25 percent, lower from Friday at 27,652.74.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended 25.06 points, or 1.30 percent, lower at 1,907.13.
Trading volume on the main section increased to 951.63 million shares from Friday's 935.58 million shares.
Tokyo stocks declined in line with other Asian markets. The increasing fears due to recent COVID-19 infections linked to the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant made Tokyo stock ended down for the fourth consecutive trading day.
Yutaka Miura, the senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., said, "The market is expected to remain volatile for the rest of the week, with investors reluctant to secure positions ahead of Japan's four-day weekend to avoid potential risks in global markets."
He also said that the surge of COVID-19 infections in Tokyo has hurt market sentiment, and investors' concerns are growing since the countries with high vaccination rates struggle to deal with the COVID-19 situation.
Tokyo has been experiencing a rapid resurgence in COVID-19 infections with 1,008 new infections reported Sunday, exceeding 1,000 cases for five days in a row.
At the same time, due to the concerns of accelerating inflation, the U.S. consumer sentiment index for early July unexpectedly declined, resulting in losses in the U.S. market late last week. The overseas pressure also influenced Tokyo stocks, brokers said.
By the close of play, all sectors declined except for pharmaceuticals. Major declining industries were led by air transportation, iron and steel, and electric appliance. Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,912 to 217 on the First Section, while 63 finished unchanged.
Chip-related issues dropped following losses among U.S. counterparts Friday. Among them, Advantest decreased 1.4 percent, Taiyo Yuden fell 3.6 percent, and Tokyo Electron ended down 2.1 percent.
Air transportation issues experienced a huge decline due to the continuous rise in COVID-19 infections, with Japan Airlines dropping 2.9 percent and ANA Holdings slipping 2.7 percent. Enditem