Tokyo share prices did an about-face in Monday morning trading, at first falling sharply across the board in reaction to the stunning defeat of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday's House of Councilors election.
An hour into the morning session, however, stocks regained their footing -- due in part to large buybacks by foreign brokerages -- and rebounded to end just slightly lower. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index on the first section on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended off 16.48 points, or 0.10 percent, from Friday's close at 16,073.58, after moving between 15,804.35 and 16,084.57.
On the Tokyo foreign exchange market, the dollar lost some steam against the yen in late Monday morning as profit-taking emerged after it rose as high as 144.50 yen following the LDP's devastating defeat.
At noon, the dollar was quoted at 142.50-53 yen, down from 144.05-07 yen at 9 a.m. in Tokyo, but up from 141.30-40 yen late Friday in New York. The dollar surged to the mid-144 yen level early, a height last seen June 17 before the United States and Japan intervened in the currency market to prop up the yen.