Tokyo Stock Prices Plummet, Dollar Surges Against the Yen
TOKYO — Prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange dived today, and the dollar surged against the Japanese yen amid speculation that an agreement on market intervention by leading currency nations was falling apart.
The 225-share Nikkei Stock Average fell 773.25 points, or 2.54%, ending the day at 29,624.68. On Monday, the Nikkei index gained 1,119.15 points in its fourth-largest single-day advance.
Volume on the first section was estimated at 550 million shares today, down from 800 million on Monday.
Nomura Securities analyst Masahiro Umemori attributed the Nikkei’s drop to the yen’s downturn, which he said resulted from insufficient intervention overnight by central banks from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
Bank of Japan Governor Yasushi Mieno said after returning from a meeting of finance ministers of the G-7 nations in Paris last weekend that they had pledged to intervene in currency markets to support the falling yen.
The G-7 is composed of Japan, Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Italy and West Germany.
The dollar closed in Tokyo at 158.15 yen, unchanged from its opening but 1.70 yen higher than Monday’s close of 156.45 yen..
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