TOKYO, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Tuesday as investors opted to secure profits after the market's recent advance.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 47.84 points, or 0.21 percent, from Monday to close the day at 22,818.02.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 0.77 point, or 0.04 percent, to finish at 1,805.15.
Market strategists here said that stocks drew buying in the morning on hopes that trade issues between the United States and China will recede, but investors took to securing profits in later trade following the market's gains over the past three sessions, they said.
Some investors also hit the sidelines ahead of significant economic data due out from the U.S. in the form of retail sales for April due out later in the day and Japan's gross domestic product data for the January-March quarter due out on Wednesday.
Market players, strategists here also said, were also keeping an eye on the situation between Israel and the Palestinians.
Any escalation in conflicts, they said, could lead to a broad range of issues being sold here and defensive positions being assumed, which could mean the yen's appreciation against a basket of major currencies.
The yen's rise not only dents exporter issues, the firms of which are reliant on a weaker yen to boost profitability and competitiveness in overseas markets, but a firm yen tends to negatively impact the broader market here.
By the close of play, real estate, service and securities house-oriented issues comprised those that declined the most, and falling issues beat advancing ones by 1,007 to 994 on the First Section, while 82 ended the day unchanged.
On the main section on Tuesday, 1,730.46 million shares changed hands, rising from Monday's volume of 1,519.88 million shares.
The turnover on the second trading day of the week came to 2,741.9 billion yen (24.96 billion U.S. dollars).
