Tokyo stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, as investor sentiment continued to be dashed by geopolitical tensions on the Korean Peninsula, although losses were trimmed by hopes the central bank here will buy more exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average edged down 27.84 points, or 0.14 percent, from Tuesday to close the day at 19,357.97.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, inched up 1.29 points, or 0.08 percent, to finish at 1,592.00.

Securities and bank-linked issues comprised the day's biggest decliners, whereas services, and fishery, agriculture and forestry stocks were among those that gained the most by the close of play.

Rising issues beat those that declined on the First Section by 1,166 to 746, while 112 remained unchanged at the end of the day.

Brokers here said the market was weighed down by Wall Street's overnight drop on continued concerns about geopolitical tensions related to the Korean Peninsula, with the dollar's depreciation against the yen sending Japanese export-oriented issues lower.

Traders here said to a certain extent the market derived some support from the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) recent purchase of ETFs with optimism high the central bank may act to further underpin the market henceforth.

Some investors took a wait-and-see approach Wednesday amid a lack of fresh trading cues recently, traders said, ahead of the release of U.S. non manufacturing data for August later in the day as well as the results of the European Central Bank's (ECB) policy meeting on Thursday.

On the main section on Wednesday, 1,665.53 million shares changed hands, rising from Tuesday's volume of 1,640.26 million shares.

The turnover on the third trading day of the week came to 2,210.0 billion yen (20.34 billion U.S. dollars).