TOKYO -- The Nikkei Stock Average's first fall in nine trading days does not appear to signal any dimming of interest from the foreign investors who have driven the recent Japanese rally, but questions remain about how long a boom driven by hopes for change will last.
Tuesday's 129-point drop appears to have been driven by profit-taking, touched off by word of a government decision on technology export curbs that hit semiconductor stocks. A morning rally lifted the benchmark index nearly 270 points beyond Monday's close to above 31,300. But it slumped in the afternoon, at one point slipping more than 250 points below Monday's close.
