Nikkei Briefly Plunges Over 2,200 Points in Morning

Tokyo, July 16 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average briefly plummeted over 2,200 points Thursday morning as semiconductor-related issues met with heavy selling following overnight falls in U.S. peers. At 10:13 a.m., the index of 225 major issues listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime section stood at 66,524.02, down 2,227.49 points, or 3.24 pct, from Wednesday’s closing. “Investors continued to sell Japanese and U.S. semiconductor-related issues, which had been bought actively, to lock in profits and purchase other stocks,” an official of a Japanese securities company said. On the Prime section, chipmaking equipment makers Advantest and Tokyo Electron, memory chip maker Kioxia Holdings and technology investor SoftBank Group lost substantial ground, dragging down the Nikkei average. On the South Korean stock market, Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest NAND flash memory maker, and SK Hynix, the second-largest player, fell sharply. Their weakness spilled over to third-ranking Kioxia Holdings as well as Nikkei 225 futures, market sources said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]