TOKYO, Japan - An avalanche of sell orders forced Tokyo’s stock market to close early Wednesday, with the main benchmark closing down 2.94 percent, after plunging almost as much on Tuesday when it lost 2.84 percent.
The trigger was a prosecutors' raid Monday night on the offices of Livedoor Co., a fastgrowing Internet services group. Livedoor shares did not trade Wednesday for lack of buy orders but were marked down by the daily 100-yen limit for a second day in a row to 496 yen.
At that price, more than $1.8 billion of the company's market value would be wiped out.
With the abrupt tumble, analysts debated whether the damage would stop Thursday with Internet stocks or whether it would pull down the world’s second largest market, a bourse that grew 40 percent last year, drawing investors from around the world.
