SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian shares tumbled Tuesday as Tokyo's stock benchmark plunged 10.6% amid worries Japan's nuclear crisis would further complicate and endanger the nation's recovery from its worst-ever earthquake on record. The Nikkei Stock Average finished 10.6% lower at 8,605.15 after falling as much as 14% intraday, pressured by news of explosions at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No. 2 and No. 4 reactors, on top of previous blasts at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors. Extending a 6.2% fall Monday, the performance is the Nikkei's worst since its Oct. 16, 2008, drop of 11.4%, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. "What the world is watching right now is whether Tepco's Fukushima nuclear power plant is going to turn into Chernobyl," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in present-day Ukraine. Investor wealth of $364 billion - 9.4% of the Tokyo stock exchange's market capitalization - was wiped out during the session after Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said there's a high risk of elevated levels of radiation from the nuclear reactors and urged people within 30 kilometers of the plant to stay indoors. Also, the Tokyo metropolitan government said radiation levels in the Japanese capital surged to 23 times the normal level Tuesday. Ranking among the major losers in Tokyo, shares of Tokyo Electric Power Co. dropped 24.7%, Toshiba Corp. fell 19.5% and Fast Retailing Co. shed 17.5%. In the futures market, the Nikkei June contract fell 820 points to close at 8,640 on the Osaka Securities Exchange, where circuit breakers were triggered during the session, prompting a temporary trading halt. The hefty losses in Tokyo also drove declines in other Asian markets, raising concerns about a possible wider global market fallout. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 2.9%, China's Shanghai Composite lost 1.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 2.1%, Taiwan's Taiex skidded 3.4% and South Korea's Kospi fell 2.4%. India's Sensex shed 0.9% in afternoon trading. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slumped 194 points in screen trade. In commodities trading, April crude-oil prices shed $1.95 to $99.22 a barrel, while spot gold was at $1,415.10, tumbling $13.70 a troy ounce. "[The nuclear developments are] still unfolding as we trade the market," said Ben Collett, head of Japanese equities at Louis Capital Markets. With the Nikkei's fall, "you've got to sell not just the Nikkei but also the S&P" and other global markets, unless there is a Japanese government coordinated move to support markets, he said. However, some other analysts said the impact on global markets was likely to be more subdued and that the fall in Tokyo stocks this week presented a buying opportunity. "How many times in a lifetime do you see a major market drop nearly 20% in two days? Professional investors should and will look at buying opportunities at this point," said Uwe Parpart, chief economist and Asia strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. Figuring among the major stock movers in the region were Chinese coal and gold miners, which retreated, tracking a fall in global oil and gold prices. China Shenhua Energy Co. dropped 2.7% and Zijin Mining Group Co. lost 3.8% in Shanghai; in Hong Kong, they gave up 2% and 3.4%, respectively. Shares of Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China sank 6.1% in Hong Kong on the insurer's plan to raise $2.5 billion from a private placement. In Sydney, shares of uranium miners and explorers extended Monday's sharp falls, with Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. sliding 14.3% and Paladin Energy Ltd. shedding 17.5%. Several steel and refining stocks that had risen Monday also retreated amid worries about the scale of Japan's nuclear crisis. Posco fell 3.5% and S-Oil Corp. dropped 0.7% in Seoul and Bluescope Steel Ltd. declined 5.8% in Sydney, and in Mumbai trade, Tata Steel Ltd. slid 1.1% and Indian Oil Corp. shed 1.3%. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. shed 2.3% in Hong Kong and 1.6% in Shanghai. Elsewhere in the region, New Zealand's NZX-50 fell 1.4% and Philippine shares lost 0.6%. Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 2.8% and Indonesian shares retreated 1.3%. In afternoon trade, Thailand's SET stumbled 1.7% Foreign-exchange markets saw choppy trade as Prime Minister Kan's comments sparked a wave of selling in riskier currencies such as the Australian dollar. The U.S. dollar dropped to a low of Y81.21, before bouncing and was recently at Y81.53, compared with Y81.62 in late New York trade Monday. The euro was at Y113.22 from Y114.22, and at $1.3890 from $1.3993. The Australian dollar tumbled to $0.9945 from above parity. Heavy selling was also witnessed in the Singapore dollar, the Indian rupee, the Korean won and the New Zealand dollar. -Dow Jones Newswires; +65-6415-4140; markettalk@dowjones.com TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please email us at TalkbackAsia@dowjones.com. Readers should include their full names, work or home addresses and telephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.

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