TOKYO, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Monday, with the benchmark Nikkei ending at a one-month low on concerns Turkey's financial crisis will affect the global economy.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 440.65 points, or 1.98 percent, from Friday to close the day at 21,857.43.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 36.66 points, or 2.13 percent, to finish at 1,683.50.
Shares were pressured from the get-go as investors were in a risk-averse mood related to the Turkish financial crisis and possible regional and global contagion, market strategists here said.
They added that along with European banks, Japanese banks have also lent Turkish banks money and so are also exposed to the problem.
As such, domestic banking issues duly retread Monday, with the overall market mood dampened by the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar and the euro, due to the crisis in Turkey.
In times of economic turmoil, investors often look to the Japanese currency as a "safe haven" and switch out of riskier assets like stocks and into the yen, which drives its value up against a basket of global currencies.
Such yen buying sees exporters hit particularly hard as they rely on a weaker yen to boost their competitiveness and profits in global markets and see profits augmented when repatriated on favorable currency exchanges.
By the close of play, machinery, marine transportation and nonferrous metal-oriented issues comprised those that declined the most, and falling issues beat rising ones by 1,884 to 191 on the First Section, with 28 ending the day unchanged.
On the main section on Monday, 1,523.64 million shares changed hands rising from Friday's volume of 1,507.92 million shares.
The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 2,514.4 billion yen (22.78 billion U.S. dollars).
