Jiji Press Stocks lost further ground on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday as a stronger yen sapped investor confidence in month-end trading. The 225-issue Nikkei average lost 82.04 points, or 0.55 percent, to close at 14,841.07. On Thursday, the key market gauge lost 47.86 points. The TOPIX index of all TSE First Section issues ended down 5.69 points, or 0.47 percent, at 1,211.66, after falling 8.00 points the previous trading day. In the morning, the Tokyo market moved without a clear direction, with the benchmark Nikkei wavering around Thursday’s closing level. Tokyo stocks failed to follow the lead of Wall Street’s overnight gains traced in part to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. In the testimony Thursday, Yellen said that the U.S. central bank could reconsider the pace of scaling down its asset purchases if the economic outlook changes significantly, fueling expectations that the Fed’s easy monetary policy would continue for a longer-than-expected period. Later, the Tokyo market lost steam, sending the Nikkei down over 180 points as the yen gained strength against other major currencies, notably against the dollar, brokers said. Falling issues exceeded rising ones 1,174 to 487 in the TSE’s first section, while 122 issues were unchanged. Volume rose to 2.33 billion shares from Thursday’s 2.25 billion shares. In index futures trading on the Osaka Securities Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average lost 100 points to finish at 14,860.

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