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Tokyo stocks down by break ahead of May speech

Tokyo - Tokyo shares fell Tuesday morning as investors awaited British Prime Minister Theresa May's speech about how the country will handle its exit from the European Union (EU).

The pound struggled to recover after reports that May was ready to take the country out of the EU in a so-called "hard Brexit".

Sterling traded at $1.2069 in Tokyo, compared with $1.2055 late on Monday in London. The unit plunged to $1.1986 on Monday, its lowest level since October's "flash crash" that sent it to a 31-year low of $1.1841.
US markets were closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

US president-elect Donald Trump's Friday inauguration is also in focus.

"Investors aren't likely to take big positions before seeing what comes out of May's speech on the UK's departure plans," Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities, told Bloomberg News.

"Without knowing what US President-elect Trump will say, some are trying to cut down on their long positions."

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index slipped 113.67 points, to 18 981.57 by the break, while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues lost 10.82 points, to sit at 1 519.82.

Shares in Takata extended their losses, diving 3.58% to 915 yen, after falling 10% on Monday.

The firm on Friday agreed to plead guilty to fraud and pay $1bn to settle a deadly airbag scandal that sparked the auto industry's biggest-ever safety recall.

Nintendo rose 1.42% to ¥23 530, while Toyota fell 0.55% to ¥6 789 and Hitachi shed 0.22% to ¥650.8.

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