Tokyo stocks slip by break, Takata surges on US deal

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks lost early gains to end the morning session lower on Friday, but auto parts giant Takata surged more than 20% in response to a legal settlement linked to its deadly airbag scandal.

Takata, at the centre of the auto industry's biggest safety recall, soared 20.25% to 475 yen ($4.30) after four automakers, including Toyota and BMW, agreed on Thursday to pay $553m to settle a US lawsuit over the defective airbags.

Takata's faulty airbags have been blamed for at least 16 deaths globally and scores of injuries.
Toyota ticked up 0.47% to ¥5 958.

Japanese stocks rallied on bargain-buying at the start, after heavy selling on Thursday as the crisis engulfing US president Donald Trump's administration raised doubts about the future of his economy-boosting agenda.

"Markets have clearly decided that the US political situation has the potential to knock stock valuations off their relatively high perch," Ric Spooner, a market strategist at CMC Markets, wrote in a commentary.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 30.59 points, to 19 523.27 by the break while the Topix index of all first-section issues edged down 1.16 points, to 1 5 53.85.

Telecoms giant SoftBank rose 0.65% to ¥8 358.0, Japan Tobacco slipped 0.46% to ¥4 105, and Sony tacked on 0.48% to ¥3 961.

Honda was down 0.39% at ¥3 053.

Staffing agency Recruit Holdings dropped 6.56% to ¥5 840 on fears that Google's new US job search engine business will hurt its growth in that market.

The dollar weakened to ¥111.18 from ¥111.51 in New York late on Thursday.

The yen tends to be bought at times of market turmoil as a safe haven but its strength is considered a negative factor for Japanese stocks as it can dent the overseas sales and earnings of the country's exporters.