Japanese shares sink

Japanese shares took a tumble on Thursday following three days of massive gains after a rise in domestic coronavirus cases stoked worries of tougher domestic restrictions for social distancing. The Nikkei share average dropped 4.51% to 18,664.60. It had risen 18% in the last three sessions, including an 8% gain the previous day - its biggest since 2008.
The broader Topix fell 1.8% to 1,399.32.
In a sign of things to come, trading house Marubeni lost 11.8% after it forecast a record net loss of 190 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for the year ending March. Marubeni's warning hit its rival companies, such as Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui Co and Itochu Corp, which fell 2.5%, 5.9% and 4.2%, respectively.
Pepper Food Service, fell 17.4%. SoftBank Group slumped 9.4% after Moody's downgraded its debt rating by two notches to "Ba3".