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2ND LD: Tokyo stocks tumble on Wall Street plunge on renewed financial jitters+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Aug. 19_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING DETAILS AND PRICES)
Tokyo stocks tumbled Tuesday morning as an overnight plunge on Wall Street battered investor sentiment amid renewed worries about the U.S. financial sector.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 349.02 points, or 2.65 percent, from Monday to 12,816.43. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 31.19 points, or 2.47 percent, to 1,232.56.
Brokers said the Tokyo market was dragged down by New York stocks that fell Monday due to mounting concern about the shaky state of the financial sector.
Financial jitters resurfaced after a news report that a federal recapitalization is increasingly certain at two struggling government-sponsored mortgage firms -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Stocks declined across the board, led by insurance, warehouse, and iron and steel issues.
Financials were especially weak. Mizuho Financial Group fell 11,000 yen, or over 2 percent, to 466,000 yen, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropped 23 yen, or nearly 3 percent, to 822 yen.
Yutaka Shiraki, a senior equity strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co., said uncertainty about the health of the U.S. financial sector is mounting and the Japanese financial sector could not remain unscathed.
"If the recapitalization talk is realized, there are no assurances that the securities that have been issued (by U.S. mortgage firms) will be 100 percent guaranteed," Shiraki said.
"If that happens, Japanese and overseas financial institutions that own a considerable number of securities will be affected and naturally, this can lead to write-downs (for them)," he said.
According to information disclosed by those institutions in late July, major Japanese financial institutions held at least 9.6 trillion yen in bonds and mortgage-backed securities issued by U.S. housing finance firms as of March 31. The bonds and mortgage-backed securities include those issued by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Analysts say the health of Japanese banks and other financial institutions holding such assets could deteriorate, depending on the fate of the two U.S. mortgage firms.
Exporters also took a fall from the U.S. dollar's drop into the upper 109 yen range Tuesday morning, compared to the lower 110 yen level logged late Monday. Among them, Canon lost 210 yen, or nearly 4 percent, to 5,130 yen, and value leader Toyota Motor lost 160 yen, or over 3 percent, to 4,910 yen.
On the First Section, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 1,562 to 110, with 37 others ending the morning unchanged.
Trading volume on the main section came to 781.57 million shares, down from Monday morning's 865.17 million. Volume leader Sumitomo Metal Industries decreased 19 yen, or nearly 4 percent, to 462 yen.
The TSE's Second Section index was down 17.79 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,577.11 on a volume of 16.09 million shares. On the Osaka Securities Exchange, the near-term September Nikkei 225 index futures contract was down 350 points to 12,820.
Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.
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