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BEIJING, Jan.19 -- A flood of sell orders forced the
Tokyo stock exchange to close early as investors stampeded from the world's
second-largest share market yesterday, spooked by fall-out from an investigation
into a high-flying Internet firm.
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| People buy extra editions of newspapers
reporting the Tokyo Stock Exchange trading suspension, in Osaka
yesterday.(Photo:Reuters) | The Tokyo Stock
Exchange, where shares were down almost 5 per cent at one point, suspended
trading 20 minutes before the normal closing time after the number of trades
threatened to overwhelm its computer system's capacity of 4.5 million per day.
It was the first time that the Tokyo Stock Exchange
was forced to halt trading as a result of capacity constraints since it opened
its doors in its current incarnation in 1949.
Yesterday's shut-down dealt a heavy blow to the image
of the exchange, which has plans to list its own shares.
"It is an embarrassment for this to happen in the
world's second-largest economy and that's the emotional aspect of the debate,"
said Hideo Ueki, chief investment officer at UBS Global Asset Management Japan.
"I'm pretty sure the NYSE has only had to shut down
for snow or a black-out."
"It's very shameful," said Makoto Haga, a fund
manager at STB Asset Management. "Where has high-tech-Japan gone?"
Internet firm Livedoor Co, a favourite of small
investors, was raided by prosecutors on Monday.
News of the raid extended a sell-off that has wiped
out more than US$300 billion in shareholder value about equal to the gross
domestic product of Sweden in just three days.
The firm is suspected of fudging financial reports
and spreading false information to boost its share price.
The exchange, which skimped on investment in its
computer system during Japan's decade of economic stagnation, has had to cope
with an explosion in trade as individual investors flocked to the market, in
part because of cheap access over the Internet.
"The current situation is totally unexpected," said
Tokyo Stock Exchange President Taizo Nishimuro.
Due to the slump in Japan's Nikkei and climbing oil
prices, European stocks were sharply lower yesterday.
Germany's DAX 30 was down 1.3 per cent at 5,388.61
and the French CAC 40 index opened 1.2 per cent lower. The UK's FTSE 100 index
was down 56.4 points at 5642.60 by press time.
(Source: China Daily/Agencies)
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