More on the Japan mess, article from earlier this morning.
[Welcome back, Henry, hope to hear from you more in the coming months. My own sense of the equity and macro-economic world is pretty confused these days, hope to get a little enlightenment.--Sam]
Nikkei falls three pct, led by banks and NTT firms
(UPDATE: Updates to mid-afternoon)
TOKYO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Tokyo's key Nikkei average fell more than three percent by mid-afternoon on
Monday after the failure of U.S. energy trader Enron Corp (NYSE:ENE - news) weighed on banks while
NTT group firms were hit by ratings downgrades. The Nikkei average was down 324.67 points or 3.04
percent at 10,372.77 at 0409 GMT, while the broader TOPIX index (^TOPX - news) fell 23.05 points or
2.19 percent to 1,027.17.
UFJ Holdings Inc , whose asset management affiliate holds bonds issued by Enron, tumbled 7.62 percent
to 376,000 yen. UFJ is the smallest of Japan's four megabanks.
Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday.
Telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) slipped 5.88 percent to 480,000
yen, while its mobile phone subsidiary, NTT DoCoMo Inc , lost 1.24 percent to 1.59 million yen.
NTT and NTT DoCoMo, two of Japan's largest issues by market capitalisation, came under pressure after
Standard & Poor's late on Friday lowered its long-term ratings on them to double-'A'-minus. |
