Tokyo stocks plunge on persisting economic woes

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

TOKYO, Dec. 24 (Chinese media) -- Tokyo stocks closed more than 2 percent lower on Wednesday on persisting economic woes, especially after Toyota, the country's biggest automaker reported the first-ever group operating loss in fiscal 2008 in 71 years.

The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 206.68 points, or 2.37 percent, from Monday to 8,517.10.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 21.73 points, or 2.56 percent, to 826.99.

Japanese financial markets were closed Tuesday for a national holiday. Brokers believed the weak Tokyo market was following the plunge in Wall Street both Monday and Tuesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. reported the first-ever group operating loss in fiscal 2008 Monday. On Wednesday, it announced that its group global vehicle sales in November dropped 21.8 percent from a year earlier, marking the largest single-month fall since January 2000 when comparable data became available

Toyota Motor fell 115 yen, or nearly 4 percent, to 2,780 yen. Other auto shares and auto-related shares also plunged.

On the First Section, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 1,280 to 335, with 93 others remaining unchanged.

Trading volume on the main section came to 1,532.29 million shares, down from Monday's 1,590.19 million.

The TSE's Second Section index was down 11.18 points, or 0.58 percent, to 1,903.22 on a volume of 49.30 million shares. On the Osaka Securities Exchange, the near-term March Nikkei 225 index futures contract was down 190 points to 8,550.