The rout in global stock markets continued Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei suffering a historic one-day loss, officials in Seoul worrying about a cratering currency, and European shares sinking despite announcement of a U.K. bank bailout plan and a coordinated interest-rate cut by central banks in Europe and North America. Fear and a decaying economic outlook pushed indexes from Tokyo to Mumbai to Saudi Arabia to London down sharply before the interest-rate announcement, though European markets rebounded slightly later in the day before falling again. Regulators in Indonesia and Russia halted trading early after fast declines of more than 10 percent. Mumbai's stock exchange index, the Sensex, plunged nearly 6 percent when markets opened, then staged a partial recovery. Markets also fell in Persian Gulf countries, frustrating banking officials there who said economic indicators in the region remain solid.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 9.4 percent, the largest single-day loss since the Black Monday market crash in October 1987, and now is down more than 40 percent over the past year. Markets in Hong Kong dropped more than 8 percent, and those in Singapore and South Korea were down 6 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Insulated somewhat from the global financial crisis, with banks that are holding large cash reserves, the Japanese economy has nevertheless been rattled by the sharp downturn in global car sales -- a critical component of its export-dependent economy.
Shares in Toyota Motor Corp. fell more than 11 percent following reports that it will miss its sales forecast and is facing a decline in profit of as much as 40 percent. The company has not revised its forecasts, but one executive told the Associated Press in Tokyo that the outlook was "critical."
"U.S. and Europe sales are getting seriously hit because of the economic conditions," Toyota senior managing director Yoichiro Ichimaru told the wire service.