Wall Street plunge drags down Nikkei Hard times ahead as New York leads sharp decline in stocks worldwide Tokyo share prices continued to tumble Tuesday as the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average closed below the 12,000 threshold for the first time since February 1985. The Nikkei lost 351.67 points to end at 11,819.70, after having dropped 456.53 points to reach its previous postbubble low on Monday. The leading stock index last closed below 12,000 on Feb. 7, 1985. The broader Topix index of all first-section issues plunged 35.40 points to finish at 1,170.58. The TSE's plunge came at the beginning of a global reaction. Other markets in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe also fell sharply on the heels of Wall Street, where the Nasdaq composite index fell 6.3 percent on Monday to close below 2,000 points for the first time in 27 months. In Europe, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index crashed through the 6,000-point barrier for the first time since December 1999, giving up 1.3 percent to plunge to 5,968.6 in early trading. In Paris, the CAC 40 index sweated off 1.6 percent to 5,157.5 points. London's FTSE 100 index, which had fallen 1.5 percent Monday, opened at its lowest point in more than two years, shedding another 1.3 percent to 5,753.3 points. It was the same story in Asia, where Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng Index fell 2.1 percent, finishing at 13,493.03, the index's lowest close since November 1999. Singapore shares closed 2.8 percent lower at a nine month-low of 1,797.97. Indonesian shares were bothered by political jitters as protests continue against embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid. The JSX Composite Index fell 2.7 percent to a two-year low of 385.906. Philippine shares erased 2.6 percent, the Australian market dipped 1.67 percent, South Korean shares fell 3.13 percent, the Malaysian market slumped 0.9 percent and Thai shares were down 0.7 percent. Bucking the trend was the Taiwan Stock Exchange, where share prices closed slightly higher amid suspected buying from government funds. Back in Japan, export-oriented high-tech shares came under especially heavy selling pressure. Sales aimed at realizing profits ahead of the end of the fiscal year on March 31 also accelerated selling across the board. "Tokyo stocks are usually affected by Nasdaq movements, but yesterday's falls were severe in other key indexes as well," said Tsuyoshi Segawa, head of the equity department at Sakura Securities Co. He noted that all 30 issues of the Dow average fell, as did 469 of the S&P 500. "This is literally an across-the-board fall, with shares that have been comparatively firm, such as General Electric, tumbling," Segawa said. "Players in Tokyo fear that all U.S. stock markets face a serious problem." Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at UBS Warburg (Japan) Ltd., said the weakening of U.S. stocks is not the only factor behind share falls in Tokyo. Pointing to political uncertainty and the government's inability to properly address structural problems, he said, Tokyo share prices are unlikely to recover even if U.S. stocks bottom out. The Japan Times: Mar. 14, 2001 _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
