El Desastre de Japón Se transforma en uno económico

Tokyo Shares End Day Down 11%

By COLIN NG And GA-WOON PHILIP VAHN

SINGAPORE—Tokyo shares led Asia stock markets lower, with the main index dropping 11% amid widespread worries about the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe. An afternoon bounce brought them back from a bottom more than 14% down.

Japanese stocks were pressured by news of another explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, this time at its No. 4 reactor. This was shortly after radiation levels rose sharply as the No. 2 reactor suffered an explosion following damage to its suppression pool. Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan said there's a high risk of elevated levels of radiation from the crippled reactors, and urged people within 30 kilometers of the plant to stay indoors.

"What the world is watching right now is whether Tepco's Fukushima nuclear power plant is going to turn into Chernobyl," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

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Reuters

Employees of the Tokyo Stock Exchange work at the bourse in Tokyo March 14, 2011.

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Japan's Nikkei Stock Average ended the day at 8605.15, extending Monday's 6.2% drop. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 finished down 2.1% and South Korea's Kospi Composite down 2.4%. In afternoon trading the Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 3.1%.

All 33 of Japan's Topix subindexes were lower in heavy trade with Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the damaged nuclear-power plants, down the daily limit of 25% after a 24% drop Monday.

"Foreign investors are rushing to sell nuclear-power-plant-related stocks," said Masayoshi Yano, senior market analyst at Meiwa Securities. "There is no sense of calmness to examine the health of the Japanese economy as a whole."

Exporters were lower due to production halts with Toyota Motor down 7.4% and Sony down 8.9%.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange restricted selling by brokerages for arbitrage trading on their own accounts once the Topix index had fallen more than 100 points from the previous session. The Topix bottomed at 725.90 points, and the exchange lifted the measure after it recovered to the 776.96. The Topix closed at 766.73, down 80.23 points or 9.5%.

The Japanese headlines sent stocks across the region sharply lower.

Disaster in Japan

• Japan's Nuclear Crisis Escalates
• Obama Stands by Nuclear Power
• Rescuers Scramble as Death Toll Surges
• A Nation's Vigil of Hope and Loss
• Nuclear Crisis Feeds Regulation Doubts
• Radiation Is Part of the Modern Life
• Firms Assess the Damage From Quake
• Reactor Failures Spark Safety Questions
• Uranium Firms Take Hit
• Opinion: Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl
• Heard: Aftershocks for Japan's Power Industry
• Complete Coverage: Japan Quake

In China, "there is panic selling in A-share market as investors are fretting over the reactor leaks in Japan, and further downside is likely to depend on whether the leaks in Japan can be placed under control," said Tang Yonggang, an analyst from Hong Yuan Securities.

Coal miners and gold firms were leading the declines, tracking the retreat in global oil and gold prices. Coal firm China Coal Energy was down 3.2%, while China Shenhua Energy shed 3.3%. Gold play Shandong Gold-Mining eased 3.3% and Zijin Mining dropped 4.3%.

In Australia, the news of Japan's nuclear crisis encouraged selling. "Investors are standing back from the market," said BBY senior institutional trader Peter Copeland. "But they have already discounted a lot of bad news."

Shares in Australian uranium miners and explorers extended Monday's sharp falls as Japan's nuclear disaster unfolded. Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services, described the falls as an "initial knee-jerk" move on a loss of investor confidence and said that until some facts emerge about the actual damage to the Japanese reactors and the sensationalizing moderates, it will be difficult to price uranium stocks.

Among pure uranium stocks, Energy Resources of Australia fell 14.3%, Paladin Energy shed 17%, Extract Resources dropped 18% while Uranex lost 24% and Bannerman fell 33%.

Materials stocks were also lower, with BHP Billiton falling 2.5% and Rio Tinto 2.2% lower.

Korean shares were lower as foreigners turned net sellers amid the uncertainty generated by the latest explosion at the Japanese nuclear power plant.

Technology and steel producers were lower after outperforming on Monday. Samsung Electronics fell 3.9%, LG Electronics lost 2.9% and Posco shed 3.3%.

Elsewhere in the region, New Zealand's NZX-50 closed 1.4% lower and Philippine shares down 0.6%. In markets still trading, Malaysian shares was down 1.1%, Singapore's Straits Times Index was down 2.5%, Thai shares were down 1.6% and India's Sensex was down 1.4%,

Foreign exchange markets saw whippy trade. Prime Minister Kan's comments sparked a wave of selling as dealers rushed to dump riskier currencies such as the Australian dollar. Other regional currencies were not spared with heavy selling in the Singapore dollar, the Indian rupee, the Korean won and the New Zealand dollar.

Lead June Japanese government bond futures were sharply higher, up 0.98 at 140.90 points as the Nikkei plunged. The yield on the 10-year cash JGB was down 0.04 percentage point at 1.165%.

It was hard to predict how the crisis at the crippled nuclear power plants will end, and that was boosting demand for safe-haven assets, said Deutsche Securities strategist Makoto Yamashita. Also, "there is a risk that, even if the government tries to provide fiscal help (on post-quake reconstruction), production activities and sentiment (among firms and households) will deteriorate sharply," he added.

Spot gold was at $1,409.50 per troy ounce, down $19.30 from its New York settlement Monday.

Nymex April crude oil futures were down $2.19 at $99.00 per barrel on Globex.