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| - Tokyo stocks fell more than one percent Thursday, with market heavyweight SoftBank Group nosediving for a second day and investors shrugging off massive central bank coronavirus-related interventions. After opening higher, the Nikkei 225 index ended down 1.03 percent, or 173.72 points, at 16,552.83 points, but the broader Topix index closed up 0.97 percent, or 12.38 points, at 1,283.22. SoftBank plunged 17.22 percent to 2,687 yen with worries about the liquidity of the heavily indebted company growing as global financial markets are roiled by fears over the economic consequences of the pandemic. That came after a 18.89 percent drop on Wednesday after S&P Global Ratings cut its outlook on the company to negative the night before. The firm's collapse brought down the entire index, driven by a mixture of fears, analysts said. "Investors reacted to the firm's action to buy back a bulk of shares worth 500 billion yen (announced on March 13), because it is time for companies in general to keep liquidity on hand. S&P revised down its outlook because of that," Toshiyasu Ohashi, chief credit analyst at Daiwa Securities, told AFP. "It's kind of natural that investors reacted to several factors at the same time -- the share buyback, ratings action, and global stocks declines," he said. But Ohashi, who focuses on the firm, said he was "not worried about the company's business at all". "From a different viewpoint, a share buyback at this time shows that the company can afford to do it despite the difficult business environment when other companies tend to keep cash on hand," he said. He acknowledged SoftBank is now an investment firm and the downturn means its assets are declining. "Even so, the current level of declines -- 10 percent or 20 percent loss -- is not something that shakes the foundation of the company," he said. More broadly, the market continues to fret about the fallout of the virus outbreak, analysts said. "An offering of liquidity by the (European) authorities supported morning trade, but that was short-lived as people don't know where the exit is from fears over the coronavirus," Ryuta Otsuka, chief strategist at Toyo Securities, told AFP. Investor sentiment was also worsened by falls in other Asian markets, analysts added. The dollar fetched 108.78 yen in Asian trade, against 107.96 yen in New York late Wednesday. China-linked shares were sharply lower, with industrial robot maker Fanuc sinking 7.11 percent to 12,135 yen and parts maker Rohm ending down 3.64 percent at 5,280 yen. Sony sank 1.05 percent to 5,929 yen, Panasonic was off 1.57 percent at 700 yen and Honda fell 0.30 percent to 2,269 yen. kh/sah/dan
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