TOKYO (NQN)--Tokyo stocks continued their slide Tuesday, with the Nikkei Stock Average falling 34.99 points, or 0.38%, from Monday to end the day at 9,161.68, a new low for the year and below its previous July 1 nadir of 9,191.60.
Selling surged on the yen's climb to the lower-85 level against the dollar, against the backdrop of worries about a global economic slowdown, with the benchmark index widening its losses to 112 points in the early morning.
Although the Nikkei average pared that decline in the afternoon on speculation that the Bank of Japan may sell the Japanese currency on the open market, hopes for new government stimulus measures, and investor sentiment that stocks are undervalued, none of that was enough to lift the index onto higher ground.
The value of shares traded on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange totaled only about 896.1 billion yen on a preliminary basis.