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To: EPS who wrote (247)	3/24/1999 5:34:00 AM
From: EPS	Respond to of 331

Wednesday March 24, 2:19 am Eastern Time (Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.) REPEAT-Nikkei sheds 3% as year-end spurs selling By Fiona Graham TOKYO, March 24 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks plunged more than three percent by the close Wednesday as domestic institutions dumped stocks to secure gains ahead of the fiscal year-end on March 31. The market's downward trend gained momentum following a 2.2 percent fall in the Nikkei 225 average on Tuesday and a 2.2 percent drop in New York stocks overnight. ''Foreign buying interest was strong but it could not keep up with the volume of domestic selling,'' said Shuichi Iwao, chief of stock trading at Nippon Global Securities. The benchmark Nikkei 225 average slid 503.63 points or 3.14 percent to 15,515.47. June Nikkei futures fell 450 points to 15,530. ''The Nikkei's recent rise was very steep, it was a market in need of correction,'' said a strategist at Deutsche Securities Ltd. ''The market's rise was due to excess liquidity and hopes for improvement in the Japanese economy,'' he said. ''But for the market to rise this much on wishful thinking is not sustainable, and this became clear today.'' Traders said the market also was being partly supported on the downside by foreign funds escaping the overvalued U.S. market and reallocating to Japan. A total of 685.37 million shares changed hands on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, against 827.25 million shares on Tuesday. Issues recording strong gains in March fell sharply, especially companies with high export shares that have been hurt by the trend towards a higher yen, traders said. Sony Corp was down 650 yen or 5.7 percent at 10,750, Fuji Photo Film Co declined 500 yen or 10.27 percent to 4,370 and Bridgestone Corp lost 145 yen or 5.0 percent to 2,755. Fuji Photo was also hurt by news on Wednesday that it expected its consolidated net profit for the year to March 31 to fall by 21 percent from a year earlier to 70 billion yen. Other gainers in the March rally, such as banks, real estate stocks and brokerages, also succumbed to profit-taking. Fuji Bank declined 39 yen or 5.31 percent to 696, Nomura Securities fell 76 yen or 5.28 percent to 1,364 and Sumitomo Realty and Development Co lost 21 yen or 4.19 percent to 480. Broader indexes all fell. The TOPIX index of all first-section shares dropped 30.12 points or 2.38 percent to 1,233.59. The Nikkei 300 dipped 6.87 points or 2.70 percent to 247.43. The second section index was 17.19 points or 1.14 percent lower at 1,496.03. Decliners outnumbered gainers 863 to 318, with 147 issues unchanged. (Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.)