Bloomberg.com: Japan

Japan Stocks Drop; Loss in Market Value Tops $300 Bln This Week
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- A rout in Japanese stocks deepened today, helping to wipe away more than $300 billion in value from the world's second-largest equity market this week.

Technology shares including Tokyo Electron Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. dropped after earnings from Intel Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. fell short of estimates and heightened expectations profits in the industry will disappoint.

Internet-related shares including Softbank Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp. fell for a second day. The Yomiuri newspaper said today that Livedoor Co. falsified earnings to show a profit instead of a loss in the year ended September 2004.

``Earnings such as Intel's that missed investor expectations are having a big effect on technology shares today,'' said Atsushi Osa, who helps oversee $4.1 billion at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. ``The share sell-off, especially in Internet-related companies, will continue to hurt the market until the Livedoor incident quiets down.''

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 709.48, or 4.5 percent to 15,096.47 as of 1:20 p.m. in Tokyo. Yesterday, the Nikkei slumped 2.8 percent, suffering the biggest percentage loss since April 18. In points terms, the Nikkei's decline exceeded that on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The Topix index today slid 92.52, or 5.7 percent, to 1539.09.

Share-price declines in the past three days have reduced the market value of companies listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first and second sections to 508 trillion yen from 544 trillion yen ($4.4 trillion) at the close of trading last week.

The 35.5 trillion yen loss in market capitalization almost equals the value of the entire Chinese stock market, which was valued at $329 billion as of yesterday's close.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange today asked investors to group orders together on concern trading will exceed the bourse's daily capacity of 4 million transactions.
 
 

To contact the reporter for this story:
Michael Tsang in Tokyo at  mtsang1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 17, 2006 23:31 EST
 

Maranatha!
Deborah
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