Japanese Stocks Retreat Most in Two Years on Earthquake Damage

Japanese stocks fell the most in more than two years amid record trading volume after the nation’s strongest earthquake snarled production lines and shut factories, raising concern economic growth will stall.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., Asia’s biggest power generator battling to avoid a meltdown at its Fukushima nuclear plant, plummeted 24 percent. Toshiba Corp., a maker of nuclear reactors, tumbled 16 percent. Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., the nation’s largest property and casualty insurer by market value, plunged 12 percent. Automakers retreated after Japan’s three-largest carmakers said thousands of new vehicles were damaged. Construction companies climbed.