Toyota climbs most in 16 months, recovering from surprise drop

TOYOTA Motor jumped in early Tokyo trading, rebounding from a sudden plunge in the final minute on Tuesday (May 23).

The stock gained as much as 5.5 per cent, the most since January 2022, to 1,959.5 yen. That erased on Tuesday’s loss, when the stock fell 4.8 per cent as a block of 14.5 million shares crossed at 1,857 yen per share at the close. The drop temporarily erased US$11 billion from Toyota’s market value.

“There’s a wide range of reasons” for why the block of shares may have been sold, said David Whiston, an equity strategist at Morningstar. “I don’t see anything new in Toyota’s story arc to cause the change, so perhaps either someone decided they wanted out or just needed to dump shares to raise funds for something else.”

Some market observers had also pointed to the possibility of a “fat finger” trading error for the stock’s drop.

The shares are little changed since the company’s unsurprising earnings earlier this month. Toyota is up about 6.9 per cent this year, trailing the 14 per cent gain in the Topix Transportation Equipment Index. BLOOMBERG