Tokyo - Tokyo stocks were down sharply early Tuesday in the first trading in the Japanese market since the latest Wall Street banking crisis, including the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers and the struggles of insurance giant AIG.

Opening trading after being closed Monday for a Japanese holiday, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average at 9:22 am was down 563.59 points, or 4.61 per cent, to 
11,651.17. It was the first drop below the 12,000 mark since March.

The Nikkei's drop mirrored Monday's declines in other global equity markets and on Wall Street. (dpa)