Mitsubishi Motors shares sink to new low

The share price for the automaker was hovering around 500 yen apiece.

Shares did not trade during normal hours on Thursday, as there were no buyers to match the overwhelming sellers.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange told the BBC it had forced a deal at 583 yen per share after the close of the regular trading session on Thursday.

On Wednesday Mitsubishi Motors admitted falsifying fuel economy data for more than 600,000 vehicles sold in Japan. Government officials subsequently raided an office of Mitsubishi motors, and authorities are demanding a full report from the company by 27 April.

The continued fall in the share price, since the scandal emerged on Wednesday, has already wiped off $2.5bn (£1.74bn) from the company's market value.

On the broader Japanese market, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index traded lower 0.1% at the lunch break, to 17,347.36.

Wall Street drag

Other Asian markets also traded down on Friday, mirroring how US markets performed overnight.

South Korea's Kospi was lower by 0.44% at 2,103.21.

China's Shanghai composite eased off by 0.59% - or 17 points - to 2,935.35.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong the Hang Seng index lost 1.2% to trade at 21,405.99 in the middle of the day.

In Australia the S&P ASX 200 was lower by 0.2% at midday to 5,264.8.

US stocks closed lower overnight after quarterly earnings from tech giants Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet fell short of what analysts were expecting. And a profit warning from Verizon also dented investors' sentiment. The communications firm said an ongoing strike would hurt its earnings.

The Dow Jones fell 113.75 points to 17982.52, the S&P 500 dipped 10.92 points to 2091.48. The tech-heavy Nasdaq edged downward 2.24 points to 4945.89.

(BBC)