Japan Stocks Plunge on Bankruptcy Concern; Nikkei Drops 10%

By Masaki Kondo

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Japan stocks fell, dragging the Nikkei 225 Average down 10 percent and triggering a suspension of futures trading, as the deepening credit crisis stoked concern companies outside the financial industry would fail.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan's third-biggest publicly traded bank, fell 10 percent after New City Residence Investment Corp. became the country's first failure of a listed real-estate investment trust. Toyota Motor Corp. fell 8.3 percent on concern auto sales will decline in the U.S.

``The money market is suffocated,'' said Yoku Ihara, head of equity research at Retela Crea Securities Co. in Tokyo. ``Even if investors want to buy stocks, they don't have cash.''

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 905.70, or 9.9 percent, to 8,251.79 as of 9:34 a.m. in Tokyo, the first time the benchmark fell below 9,000 since June 26, 2003. The broader Topix index fell 76.85, or 8.5 percent, to 828.26, the worst slump since October 1987. The Topix was headed for a 21 percent decline for this week.

The Osaka Securities Exchange halted trading in Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures for 15 minutes until 9:23 a.m. after a plunge triggered circuit breakers. The futures were suspended because of a decline of more than 1,000 points and as the value of the underlying Nikkei average differed from the futures value by more than 200 points.

To contact the reporter for this story: Masaki Kondo in Tokyo at mkondo3@bloomberg.net.