Nikkei in Freefall: Drops 20% in Two Days, Radioactive Cloud Heads for Tokyo
MarketWatch.com
Japan stock crash raises fear of wider global impact
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) - Japanese equities crashed Tuesday on panic selling after Prime Minister Naoto Kan said a “substantial amount” of radiation was leaking from a nuclear power plant affected by Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
The share plunge could now have wider impact on global markets, said some analysts, while others said the global markets were unlikely to follow suit and that the hefty losses this week in Japan presented a buying opportunity.
The Nikkei Stock Average /quotes/comstock/64e!i:ni225 (JP:NI225 8,605, -1,015, -10.55%) nosedived more than 14% at one point in afternoon trading on a fresh wave of what appeared to be indiscriminate selling across sectors, before recovering a little. About 40 minutes before the close, the benchmark had recovered slightly to trade down 9.7% at 8,667.32.
The drop came on top of Monday’s 6.2% tumble. Nikkei 225 futures traded in Osaka plunged 12.2% to 8,310, after trading was reportedly briefly halted earlier in the day as circuit breakers on the exchange got triggered...
CNBC
Radioactive Winds Blowing Towards Tokyo