P. M. BRIEFING : Japan Stocks in 3.37% Plunge
The Japanese stock market fell to another big loss today, as a downturn in the yen and technical factors swept the Nikkei average more than 3% lower on the last trading day of Japan’s fiscal year.
The key 225-share Nikkei index was down 1,045.71 points or 3.37% to 29,980.45 after shedding 237.41 Thursday. It was the Nikkei’s seventh-largest one-day point drop.
Volume was about 500 million shares compared with 700 million Thursday, suggesting that most investors were sidelined. The thin trading exaggerated the market’s decline, brokers said.
Disappointment over the yen’s failure to sustain Thursday’s gains against the dollar worsened the selloff.
The dollar finished at 157.65 yen and 1.6952 West German marks, climbing from 156.25 yen and 1.6930 marks at the New York close Thursday.
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