Tokyo shares fall 0.34% on strong yen, Russian fighter jet shooting

Tokyo shares opened 0.34 percent lower Wednesday, as a strong yen and jitters over the Turkish downing of a Russian fighter jet weighed on the market, after a five-session winning streak.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 68.05 points to 19,856.84 in early trading, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares dropped 0.37 percent, or 5.96 points, to 1,599.98.

Tokyo's decline followed modest gains on Wall Street after petroleum-linked shares were lifted by a rally in the oil market following the shooting incident on the Syrian border.

"Turkey shooting down the Russian plane is certainly not a positive event for markets -- this isn't something we can just ignore and continue to push stock prices higher," Chihiro Ohta, general manager of investment information at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc, told Bloomberg News.

"But US markets were fairly subdued. The wait-and-see sentiment is likely to continue."

A stronger yen also took the steam off some exporter shares with the dollar slipping to 122.45 yen from 122.55 yen Tuesday in New York.

Japanese investors were also awaiting fresh economic data later this week -- including inflation, unemployment and spending figures -- as well as details of a government stimulus package.

On Tuesday, US government data estimated third quarter gross domestic product growth in the world's top economy at 2.1 percent from the prior estimate of 1.5 percent.

But a US consumer confidence reading ticked down slightly in November from the previous month, due mainly to consumers' less favourable view of the jobs market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.11 percent, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.12 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.01 percent.

In other Asian currency trading Wednesday, the euro rose to $1.0656 and 130.48 yen from $1.0642 and 130.42 yen in US trade on Tuesday.