Toshiba Plunges Again, Drags Down Tokyo Market

TOKYO — Toshiba shares plunged Tuesday to their lowest level in nearly seven years after warning of a $4.5 billion annual loss and a round of layoffs following an embarrassing profit-padding scandal, dragging Tokyo’s benchmark stock index lower.

After the markets closed Monday, Toshiba said it would book the record loss and cut thousands of jobs, with the stock dropping nearly 10% that day after weekend reports of the shortfall. The shares tumbled another 12.28% on Tuesday to finish at 223.5 yen ($1.85).

Toshiba’s stock is worth less than half its value before revelations earlier this year that executives pressured underlings to falsely inflate profits to hide poor results.

Tokyo’s lackluster performance on Tuesday came after the three main U.S. stock indexes booked solid gains, shrugging off another new multi-year low in oil prices.

“Ahead of the holidays, it’s hard to expect to receive a decent return for taking risk,” Nobuyuki Fujimoto, a senior market analyst at SBI Securities Co, told Bloomberg News. “Japanese stocks are no longer relatively expensive, so I wouldn’t expect big declines. But they’re also unlikely to move much higher.”

The Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 0.16%, or 29.32 points, to close at 18,886.70, with Sony falling 1.01% to 2,913 yen ($24.07), and electronics parts giant Murata Manufacturing down 0.61% at 16,885 ($139.53).

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2015