Tokyo stocks market Down august 24 2011

Tokyo stocks market Down august 24 2011 ; Tokyo stocks fell 0.19 per cent on Wednesday morning, giving up early gains on an overnight surge on Wall Street and the yen's slight drop after a downgrade by Moody's of Japanese sovereign debt.



The benchmark Nikkei-225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which opened up 0.91 per cent, lost steam as most other Asian markets fell.



It ended the morning session down 16.25 points at 8,716.76 and the broader Topix index of all first-section issues lost 1.72 points or 0.23 per cent to 748.67.



Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO of Investrust, said Tokyo stocks lost ground as investors expected US stocks would fall back on Wednesday, The stubbornly strong yen and softened sentiment following the Moody's downgrade of Japan government bonds is also contributing to the decline.



The yen weakened only slightly after Moody's lowered Japan's government bond rating to Aa3 from Aa2. "Moody's move will put added pressure on the government to raise taxes