Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 2.6 percent on Monday as automakers tumbled on renewed worries about their U.S. peers after a U.S. autos task force said plans submitted by General Motors and Chrysler failed to show how they could be viable. The task force said an expedited bankruptcy process to help General Motors (GM.N) and Chrysler eliminate unsustainable debt loads may be the best path if out-of-court restructurings with creditors cannot be negotiated. "The fact that there's still a chance of GM going bankrupt is shocking," said Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities. The yen rose sharply on the news and this undercut the benchmark Nikkei .N225 broadly, which extended its slide by 238.16 points to 8,388.81. The broader Topix fell 2.9 percent to 800.84. Honda Motor Co (7267.T) tumbled 6.3 percent to 2,310 yen and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) lost 3.1 percent to 3,150 yen. The autos subindex .ITEQP.T fell 4.8 percent. Dealers were moving to lock in profits a day before the end of the fiscal year, with sectors such as banks that saw strong gains last week -- during which the Nikkei surged 8.6 percent -- hit especially hard. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) fell 5.5 percent to 497 yen and Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T) lost 7.4 percent to 200 yen.

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