-- Japanese stocks plunged, with the Topix index falling the most since April 2020 in a broad selloff, as the yen’s sharp rally weighed on exporters and the central bank’s interest rate hike dragged down real estate shares.The Topix fell as much as 3.9%, with all sectors declining. A measure of property stocks plunged as much as 8.1%, while automakers slumped 6.4%. Department stores, which had been benefiting from booming tourist spending on the back of a weaker yen, also fell.
The BOJ hiked its policy rate to around 0.25% from a range of 0 to 0.1% on Wednesday, prompting the nation’s largest lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to increase its short-term prime rate, which is seen as a benchmark for floating-rate mortgages and other loans. “BOJ Governor Ueda seemed like a different person yesterday at the press conference and was hawkish,” said Tomoichiro Kubota, a senior market analyst at Matsui Securities Co. “The previous assumption about Japanese stocks that ‘interest rates will not rise and the yen will not appreciate’ has changed.”The plunge comes after both the Nikkei 225 and the Topix reached record highs earlier this year on the back of a weak yen and a global tech rally.
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