Toyota shares eye worst day since US election as China sales drop

Toyota Motor shares are having their worst day in three months as investors continue to process news of a sharp fall in China sales.

The automaker’s stock was down 2.33 per cent in afternoon trade in Tokyo, the biggest one-day fall since November 9, the session in Asia when Donald Trump was revealed to have won the US presidential election. (The stock made up nearly all of its 6.5 per cent decline the following day, though.)

Now trading at their lowest level in nearly three months, shares may be reeling from the company’s announcement yesterday that vehicle sales in China fell 18.7 per cent year on year in January to 101,800 units.

Earlier in the week, Toyota shares fell 2.26 per cent after the company warned the US trade policy was a key risk alongside the UK’s planned exit from the EU.

Toyota, which conceded its crown as the world’s biggest automaker to Volkswagen in 2016, last week decided to lift its annual profit guidance owing to a weaker outlook for the yen.