AlHijjah 14, 1432, Nov 10, 2011, SPA - Japanese stocks plunged nearly 3 per cent to the lowest level in five weeks Thursday after an overnight sell-off on Wall Street and European markets as Italy came to the centre of the eurozone debt crisis. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 254.64 points, or 2.91 per cent, to trade at 8,500.8 while the broader-based Topix index was down 19.1 points, or 2.55 per cent, at 730.3. Both the Nikkei and Topix dropped further in the afternoon as other Asian markets fell sharply. By mid-afternoon, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index had plunged 4.33 per cent and South Korea's Kospi Index had plummeted 3.45 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.2 per cent overnight as the yield on Italy's 10-year bonds at one point surged to nearly 7.5 per cent, according to a report of the German Press Agency "DPA".
