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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (59829)	2/1/2002 1:48:28 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Tokyo stocks extend loss, political risk looms (Updates to mid-afternoon) Friday February 1, 1:26 PM sg.biz.yahoo.com TOKYO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks extended losses in mid-afternoon on Friday after growing concerns over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's grip on structural reforms hurt sentiment, already reeling from a series of bleak earnings. Tech giants NEC Corp <6701.T> and Pioneer Corp <6773.T> a day earlier became the latest big Japanese firms to warn of worsening earnings, sending the two and their peers steeply lower. The benchmark Nikkei average <.N225> was down 244.03 points or 2.44 percent at 9,753.77 as of 0455 GMT. It fell as low as 9,735.05 in early afternoon, the lowest intraday since October 1. The broader, capital-weighted TOPIX index <.TOPX> was down 19.35 points or 1.99 percent at 952.42 after touching a fresh 17-year low of 950.72. "Political risk is getting higher," said Tetsuya Ishijima, senior investment strategist at Okasan Securities. "Prime Minister Koizumi no longer enjoys high public support, and that is highly likely to force him to compromise more with the anti-reform forces in his own party," he said. If Koizumi scrapped his promised fiscal discipline, that could cause a "sell Japan" syndrome in the Japanese currency, bonds and stocks. Bank shares tumbled again due to nagging worries about their bad-debt woes.