TOKYO: Japan's Nikkei fell for a third straight day on Wednesday, as a slide for US chip makers hit technology shares and sluggish sales pulled down index heavyweight Fast Retailing.The Nikkei share average ended the day down 0.31 per cent at 21,717.04 after dropping as low as 21,604.18.High-tech stocks tracked Wall Street peers and fell, acting as a drag on the Nikkei.Tokyo Electron dropped 4.44 per cent, Advantest Corp shed 4.29 per cent, SUMCO Corp fell 4.74 per cent and Screen Holdings lost 4.18 per cent.On Tuesday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.86 per cent, with chip makers sliding after Micron Technology Inc sank when a Chinese court temporarily barred it from selling 26 chip products in the mainland.Separately, the US government moved to block China Mobile from offering services to the country's telecommunications market on Tuesday, keeping trade tensions on the boil ahead of July 6 when Washington is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports."Overnight losses by US shares and a stronger yen is weighing on the market, with some participants opting to close out their positions amid the ongoing trade concerns," said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo."July 6 is key day of sorts, but the trade spat will remain a market theme as tensions are unlikely to go away before the US midterm elections (in November)."Fast Retailing retreated 2.15 per cent after same-store sales at its Uniqlo clothing outlets in Japan fell 4 per cent in June from a year earlier, with a cold, wet spell reducing demand for summer outfits.But the unseasonably wet conditions boded well for retail shoe store operator ABC-Mart, which rose 1.86 per cent after its June same-store sales rose 5.3 per cent on brisk sales of waterproof footwear.Panasonic Corp dropped 1.85 per cent after Tesla Inc tumbled overnight on the back of scepticism over its Model 3 vehicles.
Panasonic supplies Tesla with automotive batteries.Of Tokyo's 33 sub-indexes, 16 were in the red, led by electric machinery.
Oil and coal products led the gainers following a rise in crude oil prices.The broader Topix inched up 0.03 per cent to 1,693.25.