Tokyo Stock Average Below 15,000 First Time Since ’86

The Tokyo stock market’s key Nikkei average fell below 15,000 points for the first time in more than six years today, and the prolonged bear market showed no sign of bottoming out.

The Nikkei average fell 518.57 points, or 3.34%, to 14,999.70 late in the morning session. It closed at 15,066.34 points, down 451.93 points, or 2.91%.

The average has not closed below 15,000 since it was 14,826.87 on March 25, 1986. The Nikkei is now 61% below its all-time high of 38,915.87 on Dec. 29, 1989.

Brokers said investors were depressed by the Japanese economy’s continuing slowdown and worried that corporate earnings forecasts would be further downgraded before the end of the fiscal half-year in September.

Especially galling, investors reported, was a sharp decline in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., the market’s biggest issue. The stock is held by 1.6 million investors, mostly individuals.

NTT was untraded in late morning at a sellers-only offer of 469,000 yen ($3,664), against 509,000 yen ($3,977) on Friday, its lowest closing level ever. It plunged 28,000 yen ($218.75) on Thursday and a further 42,000 ($328.13) on Friday.

Although no fresh bad news about NTT has come out, investors see the shares as overpriced and symbolic of the weakness of the overall market, brokers said.

The experts described the market as listless this week, with many investors and stocks professionals on summer vacation.