HONG KONG, Jan 23: Asian markets tumbled on Friday as dealers followed a fall on Wall Street and others stayed on the sidelines ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next week.

Tokyo dived 3.8 percent, Sydney 4.1 per cent and Seoul 2.1 per cent, while Hong Kong edged down 0.6 per cent and Shanghai 0.71 per cent.

Sydney reacted harshly to comments by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that jobs could be lost and billions of dollars slashed from the economy as growth in key trading partner China slows down.

Japan’s Nikkei was hit by Sony’s announcement that it expects to post a record loss, while Seoul was hit by Samsung Electronics reporting its first ever quarterly loss.

Investors wound down activities on concerns overseas markets might perform poorly during the holiday, Jacky Zhang, an analyst at Capital Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.

TOKYO: Down 3.81 per cent. The Nikkei-225 index dropped 306.49 points to 7,745.25. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares shed 22.36 points, or 2.81 per cent, to 773.55.

Individual companies’ financial results may set the tone for each sector and possibly even for the overall market, Daiwa Securities SMBC market analyst Yumi Nishimura told Dow Jones Newswires.

Shares of Sony shed 7.0 percent to 1,802 yen after the company forecast losses of up to 260 billion yen (2.9 billion dollars).

Nippon Steel shed 5.0 percent to 265 yen, while JFE Holdings fell 7.9 per cent to 2,150 yen.

HONG KONG: Down 0.6 per cent. The Hang Seng Index ended down 79.39 points at 12,578.60. Turnover was light at 33.72 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.32 billion US).

HSBC extended its rebound from Thursday after falling 26 percent in eight consecutive sessions. The bank ended up 0.8 percent at 57.45 dollars.

SYDNEY: Down 4.1 per cent. The S&P/ASX200 dropped 144.1 points to 3,342.7, while the broader All Ordinaries was 131.7 points weaker at 3,300.2.

Preliminary national turnover was 1.14 billion shares worth 3.4 billion dollars (2.2 billion US).

ANZ Banking Group shed 7.3 percent to 12.06, National Australia Bank sank 6.5 percent to 16.94, Commonwealth Bank sagged six per cent to 24.07 and Westpac was off 5.9 per cent at 14.60. Australia’s largest investment bank Macquarie also shrank 4.1 per cent to 24.55.

SINGAPORE: Down 1.38 per cent. The blue-chip Straits Times Index slid 23.54 points to 1,685.23 on volume of 687 million shares worth 727 million Singapore dollars (483 million US).

KUALA LUMPUR: Down 0.7 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 6.33 points to close at 872.69 points with a turnover of 277.13 million shares worth 388.36 million ringgit (107.43 million dollars).

Ranhill rose 5.5 percent to 0.87 ringgit and Public Bank was up 0.6 percent to 8.65 ringgit.

JAKARTA: Down 0.9 per cent. The Jakarta Composite Index dropped 11.74 points to 1,315.59 in thin volume.

Astra Agro dropped 3.2 percent to 10,750 rupiah due to a weak crude palm oil price outlook, while its parent Astra International dropped 1.2 percent to 12,400 rupiah.

Bumi Resources slid 7.8 percent to 470 rupiah. Bank Danamon fell 3.3 per cent to 2,225.

WELLINGTON: Down 1.07 per cent. The NZX-50 index fell 29.33 points to close at 2,705.09. Turnover was 92.4 million New Zealand dollars (48.8 million US).

Market leader Telecom bucked the weaker trend, rising two cents to 2.53 dollars on turnover worth 40.5 million dollars.

MUMBAI: Down 1.58 per cent. The benchmark 30-share Sensex index was 139.49 points lower at 8,674.35.—Reuters