Tokyo stocks open down 1.37 percent

TOKYO – Tokyo share prices opened 1.37 percent lower on Monday after New York stocks plunged last week on a dismal jobs report.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened down 122.28 points at 8,828.46.

Negative factors on Monday included the US stocks plunge as well as the yen’s rise against the euro after talks between Greece and a visiting troika of international inspectors were suspended on Friday, brokers said.

“The US economy added no jobs and there is a deepening of Europe’s sovereign debt problems, combined with the yen’s appreciation,” said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.

Shares in Japanese exporters dependent on the European market were likely to decline, he told Dow Jones Newswires.

US stocks closed more than two percent lower on Friday after a disappointing report on the labor market showed that job creation ground to a halt in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 253.31 points (2.20 percent) to 11,240.26 at the close of trade.

Stocks dived after the highly awaited US non-farm payrolls report revealed that the US economy created no jobs in August, leaving the unemployment rate at a stubbornly high 9.1 percent.

Financial stocks also took a severe pounding after reports that US authorities would sue more than a dozen big banks over their peddling of mortgage-backed securities prior to the 2008 financial crisis.

The pending suit was announced after the market’s close.

The euro bought $1.4157 in early Asian trade, marginally up from $1.4143 in New York late Friday. Against the Japanese currency, the euro tumbled to 108.81 yen from 109.72.

The dollar was at 76.88 yen, almost flat from New York.