Tokyo shares skid as Japan slips into recession

Credit: Reuters/Yuya Shino

Pedestrians holding mobile phones walk past a stock quotation board displaying various countries' share indices, outside a brokerage in Tokyo September 9, 2013.

Gross domestic product contracted an annualized 1.6 percent, compared with a 2.1 percent increase forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. That followed a revised 7.3 percent contraction in the second quarter, which was the biggest slump since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday.

The shockingly downbeat report reinforced expectations Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay a sales tax hike, set for October next year, after a hike in the tax in April took a heavy toll on consumption.

'Companies are hesitating to invest as the only place creating demand at the moment is the United States,' said Kenichiro Yoshida, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute. 'The growth of consumption is very weak; that's one reason that the government may decide to delay the sales tax (hike).'

The downbeat GDP data sent the Nikkei stock average skidding 1.1 percent.

The dollar rallied 0.4 percent to 116.71 yen, rising as high as 117.06. That helped the dollar index climb about 0.1 percent to 87.611.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was slightly lower in early trade.

On Wall Street on Friday, U.S. shares were slightly lower, but still logged weekly gains and were underpinned by data showing most U.S. retailers reported strong sales in October and consumer sentiment rose to a seven-year high in November.

Two separate reports on Friday showed Americans' expectations for long-term inflation fell, and import prices slipped 1.3 percent in September as cheaper oil and a strong dollar slashed prices of imported items.

Leaders from the G20 group of nations agreed on Sunday to boost global growth, tackle climate change and crack down on tax avoidance, but ties between the West and Russia showed signs of fraying over the Ukraine crisis. [IS:nL3N0T50NE]

The euro added 0.1 percent to $1.2535, holding well above a two-year low of $1.2358 touched on Nov. 7.

In commodities trading, U.S. crude dropped about 0.3 percent to $75.62 a barrel, moving back toward a four-year low of $73.25 marked on Friday.

Spot gold fell about 0.3 percent to $1,183.85 an ounce, giving back some of its 2.5 percent surge on Friday on short-covering and fund buying.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)