Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's shares plunged, driving the equity benchmarks to the biggest rout since the October 1987 ``Black Monday'' crash, as the accelerating credit crisis prompted investors to unload their stock holdings.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, fell the most in nine years after Nikko Citigroup Ltd. cut its rating. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. slid 6.5 percent after nationwide bankruptcies surged to the highest since May 2003. Elpida Memory Inc., the nation's largest computer memory maker, dropped to a record low as the yen strengthened to 100 against the dollar.
``It's capitulation,'' said Masafumi Oshiden, a Tokyo-based fund manager at BlackRock Inc., which oversees more than $1.4 trillion. ``There are lots of forced sellers. If you're a fund that's going bust you need to close out all your positions.''
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 967.03, or 9.5 percent, to 9,273.26 as of 2:35 p.m. in Tokyo, the steepest fall since a 15 percent drop in October 1987. The broader Topix index declined 76.64, or 7.8 percent, to 900.97, also the biggest loss in 21 years.
Toyota plunged 10 percent to 3,340 yen, the biggest slide since January 2000. Nikko Citigroup's Noriyuki Matsushima cut his rating to ``sell'' from ``buy,'' saying operating profit is likely to be 1.1 trillion yen ($10.9 billion) for the year ending in March, 31 percent below the company's estimate.
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