Japanese shares drop on fears of coronavirus forcing Tokyo into lockdown

SYDNEY, March 30 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks retreated on
Monday as the coronavirus outbreak worsened over the weekend
and more countries imposed or tightened lockdown measures,
raising fears that Tokyo could also go into its first-ever
lockdown.
The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 dropped 1.6% to
19,084.97 after Friday's 3.9% gain.
The Nikkei's volatility index .JNIV , a measure of
investors' volatility expectations based on option pricing and
considered to be a fear gauge, rose 4.2% to 54.98, but still off
a nine-year peak of 60.86 hit on March 16.
More than 662,700 people have been infected by the novel
coronavirus across the world and 30,751 have died, according to
a Reuters tally. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday extended his
stay-at-home guidelines until the end of April, dropping his
earlier plan to get the economy up and running by mid-April
after a top medical adviser said more than 100,000 Americans
could die. British authorities warned that lockdown measures could last
months, while Japan was set to expand its entry ban to include
citizens travelling from the United States, China, South Korea
and most of Europe. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday promised an
unprecedented package of steps, saying the country was close to
a national emergency as infections surged. The broader Topix .TOPX shed 1.6% to 1,435.54.
All but six of the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange were in negative territory, with air transport
.IAIRL.T , banking .IBNKS.T and insurance .IINSU.T being
the worst performers.
Blue-chip firms weren't exempt from the selloff, with Toyota
Motor Co Ltd 7203.T falling 3.3% as the automaker said the
group's global production in February slid 12.2% year-on-year.
Sony Corp 6758.T shed 3.8% after the company said the
scale of the impact from the coronavirus outbreak would be large
enough to eliminate the entire upward revisions to its annual
earnings forecasts made in February. Major oil refiners JXTG Holdings Inc 5020.T and Idemitsu
Kosan Co Ltd 5019.T sank 3.9% and 4.5%, respectively, as U.S.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 fell below
$20 a barrel in early trade on Monday. O/R
As Tokyo moves closer toward a potential citywide lockdown
over the pandemic, shares of food makers bucked the overall
weakness.
Nichirei Corp 2871.T climbed 4.1%, Yamazaki Baking Co Ltd
2212.T added 3.8%, and Toyo Suisan Kaisha Ltd 2875.T gained
6.3%.
Fujifilm Holdings Corp 4901.T jumped 6.0% as Abe said in a
news conference on Saturday that the government would push for
approval of the company's Avigan anti-flu drug, also known as
favipiravir, as a potential coronavirus treatment. Elsewhere, the Nikkei's heavyweight SoftBank Group 9984.T
slumped 5.0% after OneWeb, a satellite operator that SBG backs,
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to pursue a sale of its business
amid the virus outbreak. Analysts said suspected buying by the Bank of Japan as well
as passive investors' buying to reinvest expected dividend
payments capped losses in the afternoon session.