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Tokyo stocks open lower led by falls in tech, auto

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday, as falls on Wall Street discouraged investors from buying actively despite receding fears of a trade war.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 402.84 points, to 20,914.48 in early trade, while the broader Topix index dropped 31.51 points, to 1 685.62.

"The Tokyo market is affected by falls on Wall Street and the fact that today is an ex-dividend date," or the date buyers lose their rights to dividends, Kyoko Amemiya, senior market advisor at SBI Securities, told AFP.

Shares were also affected by bad news for the electric car maker Tesla, including the US authorities' investigation into a fatal crash involving a Tesla vehicle last week in California, she said.

"The currency market is reacting calmly" to news of talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's President Xi Jinping announced by China's state media, she added, so its impact on stocks would likely be limited.

The dollar fetched ¥105.54 in early Asian trade, against ¥105.45 yen in New York late on Tuesday.

Just minutes before the opening bell in Tokyo, China's official Xinhua news agency said North Korea's Kim Jong Un made his first-ever foreign trip as leader to meet China's president in Beijing.

Kim told China's Xi Jinping his nuclear-armed regime was willing to hold a summit with the US, and is "committed to denuclearisation", Xinhua said.

In Tokyo, tech firms and automakers led the falls, with Panasonic dropping 5.91% to ¥1 552, Nissan down 3.93% to ¥1 085.5, Toyota down 2.85% to ¥6 694 and Subaru down 3.70% to ¥3 430.

In New York, the Dow closed 1.4% lower while the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 2.9%.

Tesla shares plunged 8.22% as the National Transportation Safety Board announced it is investigating the March 23 fatal accident.

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