Japan earthquake starts tremors on the FTSE 100

via telegraph.co.uk

Japan's benchmark index ended the day 1.7pc lower at 10254.40, with South Korea's Topix and Hong Kong's Hang Seng enduring similar declines. Europe's bourses followed suit, with Germany's Dax and France's CAC 40 both sliding. Centered in the northeast of Japan around the city of Sendai, the quake has already claimed more than 300 lives and unleashed a tsunami along the country's coast. Economists at Nomura, one of the country's biggest banks, said that it was too early to judge the effect of the quake on the world's third-biggest economy, but the major reaction among most markets yesterday was a flight from riskier investments.