Tokyo stocks open lower, Nissan down over 6%

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday with shares in Nissan diving more 6% and Mitsubishi also plunging after chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested over allegations of financial misconduct.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.08% or 235.19 points at 21 585.97 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.97% or 15.91 points at 1 621.70.

Nissan shares traded 6.05% lower at ¥944.6 after dipping to a low of ¥940, down 6.51%, at one point.

Mitsubishi Motors was down 5.89% or 43 points at ¥687.

The dollar fetched ¥112.50 in early Asian trade, against ¥112.54 in New York and ¥112.77 in Tokyo on Monday.

Declines in Japanese shares come after worries about the US-China trade war and slowing technology sector growth battered Wall Street on Monday.

French auto giant Renault also plunged on a burgeoning scandal surrounding Ghosn, who heads the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.

"Losses in US shares and a higher yen is weighing on the market... while the impact of the arrest of Nissan chairman Ghosn would be limited to related companies," Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary.

Elsewhere in Tokyo, game giant Nintendo was down 2.60% at ¥32 240 and Sony was down 2.02% at ¥5 772.

On Wall Street, the Dow closed down 1.6% at 25 017.44 while the tech-rich dived 3.0% to end at 7 028.48.