TOKYO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Nikkei stock index snapped a four-day winning streak Tuesday as subpar earnings led to technology shares being sold amid jitters over key U.S. inflation data.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 249.28 points, or 0.88 percent, from Monday to close the day at 27,999.96.
The broader Topix index, meanwhile, lost 14.39 points, or 0.74 percent, to finish at 1,937.02.
Traders here said that worse-than-expected earnings reports from some Nikkei heavyweights like Softbank Group the previous day triggered selling.
Kazuo Kamitani, a strategist in the Investment Content Department of Nomura Securities Co., said that Tokyo Electron's disappointing earnings results and forecast and SoftBank Group Corp.'s huge quarterly loss pressured stocks.
Nikkei heavyweight SoftBank Group Corp. on Monday reported the largest quarterly net loss booked by a Japanese firm, owing to heavy losses made on stocks invested in by its technology-focused Vision Funds.
The Tokyo-based multinational conglomerate said it booked a net loss of 3.16 trillion yen (23.43 billion U.S. dollars) in the April-June quarter.
In addition, investment analysts said that some market players hit the sidelines and refrained from bold moves to await the release Wednesday of U.S. inflation data for signs as to the U.S. Federal Reserve's next rate hike.
"It looks like a lot of investors don't want to make moves before Wednesday's U.S. Consumer Price Index data release," a domestic securities broker was quoted as saying.
The market consensus has switched from the Fed likely hiking its interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to a 0.75 point increase following the outcome of its next policy-setting meeting, as the central bank continues with its aggressive monetary policy to tame inflation.
By the close of play, information and communication, electric appliance and bank-linked issues comprised those that declined the most, and issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,198 to 581 on the Prime Market, while 59 ended the day unchanged.
Softbank Group weighed heavily on the broader market tumbling 7 percent, while fellow Nikkei heavyweight Tokyo Electron fell 8.2 percent.
Softbank's retreat pulled down some of its peers in the communication sector, with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone losing 1.9 percent, while KDDI retreated 1.7 percent.
Chip maker Nvidia's disappointing earnings released overnight in the United States sparked concerns over the gaming industry and sent Sony, maker of the PlayStation games console, down 2.5 percent, while Switch maker Nintendo dropped 0.7 percent.
Technology shares also coming under pressure included Screen Holdings dropping 3 percent, while Advantest ended the day 3.1 percent lower.
On the Prime Market on Tuesday, 1,125.24 million shares changed hands, rising from Monday's volume of 1,123.35 million shares.
The turnover on the second trading day of the week came to 2,877.46 billion yen (21.33 billion dollars). ■