Thursday, October 9, 2008

Tokyo stocks open lower despite global rate cuts

Tokyo stocks open lower on Thursday despite concerted rate cuts by the United States Federal Reserve, the European Central bank and five other central banks around the world, including Britain and China.

The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 52.38 points, or 0.57 percent, from Wednesday to 9,150.94.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 1.87 points, or 0.21 percent, to 897.14.

The Second Section also lost ground in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and four other central banks in Europe and Canada said Wednesday they have decided to cut interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to jointly curb the spread of the financial crisis. China also lowered the deposit and lending rates by 0.27 percentage points.