2009-03-09 08:39:05 -
TOKYO (AP) - Japanese stocks tumbled Monday with relentless fears about the global economy and financial sector sending the benchmark index to a 26-year closing low.
The Nikkei 225 stock average lost 87.07 points, or 1.2 percent, to 7,086.03 _ the lowest closing level since Oct. 6, 1982 when the index finished at 6,974.35. The broader Topix index fell 1.5 percent to 710.53, also setting a quarter-century low.
Financial issues fell sharply, with top Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. shedding 5 percent to 381 yen and rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. retreating 4.3 percent to 2,645 yen.
Lender Shinsei Bank Ltd. lost 8.8 percent to 73 yen after saying Friday it will issue preferred shares to shore up its capital base. Shinsei's Tier-1 capital ratio _ the most widely used measure of a bank's solvency _ stood at 6.64 percent as of Dec. 31.
Shin Tamura, a banking analyst at Deutsche Securities Inc. in Tokyo, said the recent weakness in share prices of Japanese banks reflected ongoing fears about the future of overseas lenders and their impact on the global economy.
«In other words, the decline in current share prices is not related to the actual performance of core banking business,» he said in a report. «Because these concerns are unlikely to be resolved in the short term, there is a risk that bank shares will continue to be influenced by the trend in overseas banking shares in March and April.
Among the day's biggest losers, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. plunged 13.1 percent to 3,320 yen on concerns that U.S. approval of a diabetes treatment would likely be delayed.
Takeda, Japan's largest drug maker, said Friday that it has been told by the Food and Drug Administration that existing clinical data for the drug SYR-322, also known as alogliptin, is not sufficient enough to meet certain requirements.
Adding to the market's gloom, government data released Monday showed that Japan's current account balance _ its broadest measure of trade in goods and services with the rest of the world _ sank into the red for the first time in 13 years due to plummeting demand for Japanese exports amid a deepening global downturn.
«Consumers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States are not buying pricey Japanese goods such as cars and electronics goods,» said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at Daiwa Institute of Research. «Japan's export-driven economy is really engulfed by the waves of the global economic crisis.
Major exporters including automakers ended lower, with Honda Motor Co. down 2.1 percent at 2,105 yen and Sharp Corp. off 4.6 percent at 711 yen.
