Nikkei falls two pct by late morning, led by chips
(Updates to late-morning)
TOKYO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks tumbled by late
morning on Tuesday on the back of losses in tech shares such as
Advantest Corp <6857.T>, pushing the key Nikkei average to the
lowest intraday level in more than a decade.
The benchmark Nikkei average <.N225> was down 191.80 points
or 1.70 percent at 11,093.21 at 0142 GMT, after falling as low as
11,049.86, the lowest since October 1984 on a closing basis.
The capital-weighted TOPIX index <.TOPX> fell 13.71 points or
1.19 percent to 1,141.46.
Manufacturers of chip-making equipment lost ground after top
chipmaker Toshiba Corp <6502.T> lowered its semiconductor capital
spending target for the year to next March by 46 percent to 75
billion yen ($626 million).
Advantest fell 5.83 percent to 6,950 yen while Tokyo Electron
Ltd <8035.T> lost 1.66 percent to 6,520 yen.
Toshiba fell 2.15 percent to 591 yen, giving up past of its
Monday gains as investors shifted focus to its loss forecast away
from massive workforce reduction.
Toshiba said on Monday it would see a net loss of 115 billion
yen for the year to next March, down from its original forecast
of a 60 billion yen profit. The company also said it would cut
its group workforce by 10 percent, or close to 19,000 employees,
by March 2004.
((Kiyoshi Takenaka, Tokyo Equities Desk +81-3 3432 8837
tokyo.equities.newsroom@reuters.com))
REUTERS
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