Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)–Stocks tumbled on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday as a broad range of issues were clobbered by sales triggered by U.S. stocks’ fall overnight.
“A sharp fall of the Nasdaq composite index provided a good opportunity for correction for the Tokyo market’s overheating,” said Takayuki Suezaki, equity general manager at Nippon Global Securities.
Suezaki downplayed concern about a sharp reversal of the month- long market rally, saying that market sentiment will remain bullish even if correction continues until late next week.
At the morning close, the 225-issue Nikkei average stood down 242.75 points, or 2.2 pct, at 10,613.57. The average lost 65.72 points on Wednesday.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues was down 15.15 points, 1.5 pct, at 1,028.83. It finished down 1.73 points in the previous session.(MORE)ADD:
Falling issues outpaced gainers 1,011 to 345 on the first section in the morning, while 164 issues were flat.
Half-day volume came to 554 million shares.
A steep decline of semiconductor-related stocks led down the key market gauge, after techs fell prey to profit-taking on Wall Street as the specter of terrorism haunted the market just before the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Nonresidents turned big sellers in the morning here, with 11 foreign brokerage houses’ net selling in preopening order placement totaling as much as 12.4 million shares.
The Nikkei average gradually expanded losses toward the morning close, weighed down by selling of stock index futures by foreign hedge funds, brokers said.
Now that the key Nikkei average has surged more than 16 pct from its low in early August, technical charts are signaling that the rise was too rapid. “A sense of overheating was in the market on a short-term basis,” said Kenichi Azuma, strategist at Cosmo Securities Co.(MORE)THIRD:
Among tech losers were Advantest, Tokyo Electron, Kyocera, Sony and Fujitsu.
Megabanks of Mizuho, Mitsubishi Tokyo, UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui were under downward pressure, together with brokerage houses like Nomura, Nikko and Daiwa.
Also lower were telecom carriers including NTT, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI.
Ajinomoto faltered on news that six people died in Japan after taking an oral intestinal cleaning agent by subsidiary Ajinomoto Pharma Co.
But meat processor Prima Meat Packers soared to a fresh year-to- date high on an announcement Wednesday that it will issue 4.8 billion yen of preferred shares to trader Itochu and two others to replenish capital.
Trading firm Toyota Tsusho showed strength on news about its tie- up with a Kobe Steel subsidiary in the construction equipment business in China to tap growing demand there.
