Tokyo share prices plunged more than seven per cent Thursday on record volumes as investors panicked in the rush to take profit on weak Chinese data after months of sharp climbs.
The Nikkei 225 index closed at the day's low of 14,483.98, down 1,143.28 points, or 7.32 per cent, the biggest daily fall since March 15, 2011, in the wake of a huge earthquake-tsunami and the ensuing nuclear crisis.
The Topix index of all first-section issues at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 6.87 per cent, or 87.69 points, at 1,188.34.
Trading was volatile with volume at a record 7.66 billion shares among first section issues against 6.38 billion yesterday.
"Towards the end of the trading, panic selling was seen in massively heavy trading," said Hirokazu Fujiki, strategist with Osakan Securities.
"We can't tell whether or not this was a temporary storm of selling before watching reactions from US markets later today," Fujiki told AFP.
The losses in Tokyo set off a chain of drops in Europe when the markets opened.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index slumped 1.42 per cent to 6,743.32 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 crashed 2.11 per cent to 8,351.19 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 2.24 per cent to 3,953.32.
The huge drop in Tokyo came after HSBC said manufacturing activity in China contracted in May for the first time in seven months in another sign of the weakness of the recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
"The negative Chinese indicator triggered today's selling," said Fujikiki. "It was no wonder sizable selling could emerge as Japanese shares rose quite fast recently."
Earlier in the day, the Nikkei index, which closed at its best level in more than five years on Wednesday, had risen 0.23 per cent, bucking the decline in New York the previous day.
Selling accelerated when the yen jumped against the dollar in Asia afternoon trade as investors adjusted positions after the recent fast-paced decline in the value of the Japanese currency.
Source:Economic Times
No comments:
Post a Comment