일본 니께이지수, 7.3% 급락

[프란치스코]

Japan’s Topix index tumbled almost 7 percent, the most since the aftermath of the March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, as financial companies plunged amid rising bond yields. The rout triggered a halt in Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures trading in Osaka.

Consumer lenders lost 11 percent to lead declines among the Topix’s 33 industries. Mitsubishi Estate Co., the country’s biggest developer, slid 9.3 percent. Mitsubishi Motor Corp. dropped 14 percent, falling a second day after advancing more than 50 percent in the previous three days. Tokyo Electric Power Co. plunged 13 percent.

The Topix (TPX) lost 6.9 percent to close at 1,188.34 in Tokyo. Even with today’s decline, Japan’s broadest measure is still up almost 40 percent for the year. Japan’s 10-year government bond yields touched 1 percent today for the first time in a year after Treasuries slid on speculation the Federal Reserve will curb stimulus.

“Rising interest rates is the story today,” said Tomomi Yamashita, a fund manager who helps oversee the equivalent of $5 billion at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “There’s also a lot of profit taking going on. When volatility is high, then investors want to take off risk and move away from risk assets.”

A measure of share swings surged to its highest in two years. The Topix’s 50-day volatility rose to 28.8, the highest since May 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Topix and Nikkei 225 Stock Average have risen more than 40 percent this year, outperforming all major equity indexes amid unprecedented Bank of Japan easing. The Topix trades at about 1.4 times book value, compared with about 2.5 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 1.7 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

JGB Yields

Yields on benchmark Japanese government bonds rose to meet 1 percent for the first time in more than a year, while a plunge in the securities’ futures prompted a circuit-breaker halt.

The Bank of Japan injected 2 trillion yen ($19.4 billion) into the financial system today to stem volatility, as benchmark JGB yields swayed the most since the day after the central bank announced unprecedented bond buying.

The yen rallied, snapping a two-day drop that took it to the weakest in more than four years, as Japanese shares extended declines.

Exporters fell after a Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 49.6, according to preliminary data released today by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. That compared with the 50.4 median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

“Investors are concerned that a deterioration of overseas economies will hurting earnings for Japanese companies,” said Ayako Sera, a strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd., which has the equivalent of $325 billion in assets. “That’s fueling risk-off sentiment.”

(인용: Anna Kitanaka, Toshiro Hasegawa, 부름버그)