Tokyo stocks fall for third straight day

Tokyo stocks fell for third straight day Wednesday, with the Nikkei Stock Average plunging 222.94 points, or 2.08%, to end the day at 10,486.99, the day’s lowest point. It is the first time for the benchmark index to close below 10,500 since Dec. 28, the last trading day of 2012. It is also the first time the index has logged a three-day fall since Nov. 14, when then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda expressed his intention to dissolve the lower house of the Diet. Investors were selling carmakers and other exporters, which have been bought recently on expectations of improved earnings, because the dollar and the euro depreciated against the yen, according to (Nikkei) website. The trading value on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange totaled about 1.76 trillion yen on a preliminary basis, the lowest level since Dec. 28.