TOKYO: Japanese stocks fell sharply out of the open Monday as the market reacted to results from the Greek referendum rejecting the terms of that country’s current rescue deal. About 10 minutes into trading, the Nikkei Average NIK, -1.81% was down 1.5%, as was the Topix I0000, -1.66% though both had moved off their opening lows. Ahead of the start of trade, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said both the government and Bank of Japan were “fully prepared” to handle possible global fallout from Greece, according to Dow Jones Newswires. With the Greek decision holding the possibility of its departure from the eurozone, and even raising questions about the future of the euro itself, the yen rose in safe-haven buying, with the euro EURJPY, -0.94% dropping to ¥135.08 (a 1.1% loss for the day, according to FactSet), and the dollar USDJPY, -0.30% falling to ¥122.55 (a 0.3% loss). While Tokyo shares were down across the board, those names with large exposure to Europe were among the loss-leaders, including Mazda Motor Corp. 7261, -2.89% MZDAF, -1.88% (down 2.9%) and Ricoh Co. 7752, -3.11% (down 2.5%). Likewise, financials saw strong reaction to the Greek news, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. 8306, -2.80% MTU, -0.14% down 2.1%, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. 8411, -3.05% MFG, -0.69% down 2.4%, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. 8316, -3.25% SMFG, -0.34% down 2.3%. Shares of Toshiba Corp. 6502, -2.72% TOSYY, -1.43% retreated 3.9% after The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources over the weekend as saying the company’s accounting problems will result in a mark-down to operating profit that will be double what Toshiba previously estimated.
