SYDNEY: Uranium-related stocks dived for a second day on the Australian share market on Tuesday, as investors were spooked by the worsening nuclear crisis in tsunami-hit Japan.
The Australian market suffered its biggest one-day fall in nine months, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closing down 2.11 percent, or 97.7 points, to 4,528.7 and the broader All Ordinaries falling 100.2 points, or 2.12 percent, to 4,527 after Japan warned of rising radiation levels.
"It's going in one direction, south," IG Markets market strategist Ben Potter told AFP, saying that the market had dropped about 100 points in an hour in early afternoon.
"The market is being driven by pure fear at the moment."
Japan's government said Tuesday that radiation levels near a quake-stricken nuclear plant were now harmful to human health, after two explosions and a fire at the Fukushima No.1 plant, 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
The news sent shockwaves through financial markets.
"Further rumours of another flash crash coming has seen value thrown out the window as panic selling sets in across world equity markets," CMC Markets sales trader Ben Taylor said.
In Australia, falls were across the board but while banking and resources stocks were down broadly in line with the market, major uranium miners and explorers dropped sharply after heavy falls on Monday.
Energy Resources of Australia, one of the largest uranium producers in the world through its Ranger Mine, providing some 10 per cent of global primary uranium production, plunged to its lowest level in more than six years.
ERA stocks, which shed more than 12 percent on Monday, dropped 14.30 percent to close at Aus$7.07.
Fellow uranium miner Paladin Energy dropped 17.47 percent to Aus$3.26 after slipping more than 16 per cent on Monday.
Among the explorers, Peninsular Energy Ltd fell 30.59 percent, Energy and Minerals Australia lost 26.3 percent and Extract Resources Ltd was down 18.45 percent.
Other energy stocks were also down with Woodside Petroleum ending the day off 1.47 percent at Aus$41.58 and coal miner Macarthur Coal down 2.72 percent at Aus$10.36.
The world's biggest diversified miner BHP Billiton, which operates one of Australia's three uranium mines, closed down 2.54 percent at Aus$42.97. Rival Rio Tinto lost 2.2 percent to Aus$77.41.
"When you see BHP down 10 percent in a couple of weeks, no matter what you think, that has got to be good value," Austock Securities senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said.
Australia, currently riding an Asia-driven mining boom, has about one-third of the world's known uranium resources but does not have nuclear power itself, instead exporting its uranium to the United States, France and Japan.
The Australian dollar also fell, trading at 99.74 US cents at the close of the business day on Tuesday, down from the previous day's local close of 100.79 US cents.
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