Japanese shares plunged 1.72 percent yesterday, falling sharply in the closing minutes of trade after the country was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
The Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 179.95 points to 10,254.43. The Topix index of all first section shares tumbled 1.7 percent, or 15.33 points, to 915.51.
The market was already weighed down before the earthquake by unrest in the Middle East, eurozone debt worries, a wider-than-expected US trade deficit and China’s announcement of a rare trade deficit for last month.
ASIAN STOCKS
Elsewhere in Asia, Taipei fell 75.08 points, or 0.87 percent, to 8,567.82. Hong Kong shares fell 365.11 points, or 1.55 percent, to 23,249.78. China’s Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, was down 23.34 points, or 0.79 percent, at 2,933.80.
Manila fell 35.59 points, or 0.90 percent, to 3,924.35 and Wellington dropped fell 23.39 points, or 0.69 percent, to 3,382.84
In Frankfurt, shares in the German insurance groups plunged in morning trading yesterday as they appeared set to take a hammering from the massive earthquake in Japan.
Shares in re-insurance giant Munich Re fell by 4.63 percent to 111.35 euros, and Allianz was off by 2.12 percent to 99.84 euros, while the DAX index of German blue chips was off by 0.92 percent overall.
Shares in Hannver Re, the world’s third biggest re-insurance group, were 4.12 percent lower at 39.12 euros, while the MDax index on which they are listed was off by 0.95 percent.
It was too early to assess the economic damage, but the quake, centred in northeast Japan, was a potentially destructive magnitude 8.9 and caused a tsunami 10m high.
Amid the early damage was a fire blazing at an oil refinery near Tokyo.
Trading volume spiked as the quake spurred last-minute selling, topping 3.15 billion shares, easily the most this year so far.
JAPANESE MOVERS
Among major share movers, Honda Motor, Kyocera and Fast Retailing all finished sharply down, falling 2.6 percent to ¥3,310, 3 percent to ¥8,170 and 2.9 percent to ¥12,250 respectively.
Snack food maker Calbee, making its debut on the Tokyo exchange’s first section, closed at ¥2,221, up 5.8 percent from its 2¥,100 IPO price. Tokyo followed global markets lower after a sovereign downgrade for Spain raised eurozone debt fears and turmoil in Saudi Arabia raised concerns of higher oil prices impacting global growth.
The yen fell to below 83 to the US dollar as dealers rushed away from the earthquake risk, but recovered in the late afternoon to 82.89 to the greenback, compared with 82.91 in New York late on Thursday.
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