TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 1.09 percent Wednesday morning after China cut the value of its currency for the second day in a row, aggravating worries about the strength of the world’s number two economy.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 225.35 points to 20,495.40 by the break, while the Topix index of all first-section shares slipped 0.99 percent, or 16.71 points, to 1,670.89.
Tokyo’s losses accelerated, in line with sharp falls in other Asian shares and following losses in the US and Europe, after China’s central bank trimmed the reference yuan’s rate by 1.62 percent.
The daily fix that sets the value of the Chinese currency against the greenback was lowered to 6.3306 yuan, from 6.2298 the previous day, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement on its website.
The move, a day after the unit was devalued by nearly two percent, added to jitters in global equity, forex and commodity markets and raised concerns about the health of the word’s second-largest economy.
The cuts have been widely seen as way to help boost exports as growth slows in China, but have also sparked fears of a war where countries compete to reduce the value of their currencies.
