Nikkei Briefly Tumbles over 300 Points in Morning

Tokyo, April 28 (Jiji Press)--The benchmark Nikkei average briefly tumbled over 300 points on the Tokyo Stocks Exchange Wednesday morning, on renewed worries about European credit woes, following Standard & Poor's downgrades on Greece and Portugal.

At morning close, the 225-issue Nikkei average stood down 276.67
points, or 2.47 pct, at 10,935.99 after losing about 330 points at one
stage. On Tuesday, the key market gauge advanced 46.87 points.
The TOPIX index of all first-section issues was 20.04 points, or
2.01 pct, lower at 977.59, after edging up 0.92 point the previous day.
Major rating agency S&P on Tuesday cut its long-term sovereign
credit ratings for Greece by three notches to "BB+," below investment grade,
and for Portugal by two notches to "A-."
Following the news, U.S. and European equities plunged overnight
and the yen rose sharply against the dollar and the euro, both weighing on
Tokyo stocks, brokers said.

"A further downgrade is possible" for Greece, S&P credit analyst
Marko Mrsnik said in a statement, citing the possibilities of domestic
political opposition to the government's fiscal and structural reform and of
weaker-than-assumed economic conditions in the country.
Still, "as the euro-zone countries has prepared for a rescue
package for Greece, the market could restore calm after a sell-off,"
Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc., said.
Investors stayed cautious before the U.S. Federal Reserve releases
a statement to wrap up a policy-setting meeting through Wednesday, brokers
said.
Declining issues far outnumbered advancing ones 1,525 to 107 on the
TSE's first section in the morning, while 38 issues were flat.
Half-day volume came to 1,185 million shares.

Technology firms, including Sony, Canon and Kyocera, suffered hefty
losses, as did automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
Megabanks Sumitomo Mitsui, Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho fell sharply,
along with insurance companies Dai-ichi Life, Tokio Marine and T&D Holdings.
Railway operators JR East, JR West and JR Tokai were downbeat,
along with telecoms carriers NTT, KDDI and NTT DoCoMo.
Bucking the broad-based fall, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical rose 3.07
pct, a day after announcing that for the business year that ended in March,
it now expects a group net profit of 5.5 billion yen, up from one billion
yen in its previous forecast.