Tokyo shares slide

Japanese shares ended down 1.26 percent on Monday as global financial turmoil claimed fresh victims in Europe and investors waited nervously for the US Congress pass a huge Wall Street bailout plan. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index lost 149.55 points at 11,743.61.
The broader Topix index of all first-section shares dropped 20.02 points or 1.74 percent to 1,127.87. The US plan aims to mop up bad debts from struggling banks and prevent further financial chaos that could tip the world's largest economy into recession.
But there were lingering doubts about how effective the package will be in stemming the worst US financial crisis since the Great Depression, dealers said. Although fears about the US financial crisis are easing, "investors still want to see details of a bailout," Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC, told Dow Jones Newswires.
The tentative US agreement, announced just hours before Asian markets opened, aims to mop up bad debts from struggling banks and prevent further financial chaos that could tip the world's largest economy into recession. But instead investors were unsettled by signs of widening problems in the European financial sector, Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis was forced to seek a government bailout, while Britain announced it would nationalise troubled mortgage lender Bradford and Bingley.
"We know that we are most likely to avoid a meltdown in the US financial sector, but what matters now is negative news from new regions," said Motomi Hiratsuka, a trader at BNP Paribas. Carmakers were hit by worries about slowing demand. Toyota Motor lost 3.2 percent to 4,590 yen after Japan's top automaker said it was curbing production in the once-booming Chinese market.
Isuzu Motors plunged 11 percent to 291 yen as Goldman Sachs lowered its rating on the stock to "neutral" from "buy". Shipping firms remained pressured by falling freight charges. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines slid 6.0 percent to 889 yen and Kawasaki Kisen dropped 6.3 percent to 628 yen. On the foreign exchange market, the dollar rose to 106.28 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 105.95 in New York late Friday. The euro slipped to 154.81 yen from 154.92.