my first react app is throwing this error : Uncaught SyntaxError SyntaxError: Unexpected token ‘<'

I am new to front-end & have just begun react js, (learning in VS code) I’ve setup my basic environment but when executing the 1st default “page.js” file the following error is being thrown:

C:Program Filesnodejsnode.exe .apppage.js
Process exited with code 1
Uncaught SyntaxError SyntaxError: Unexpected token ‘<‘

The code in my page.js file

import React from 'react'

const page = () => {
return (
    <div> page </div>
 )
}

export default page

given i am new to this environment I just can’t seem to understand what’s wrong here nor am I able to get any answers on how to fix this over the net, if someone can explain what is the problem & how to fix it & why is it happening, it would be very helpful.
Thanks