HONG KONG, Jan 13: Asian stocks fell on Tuesday as investor confidence was dealt a blow by more bad corporate news as fears about the global economic slowdown continued to spread.

Tokyo, which was closed Monday, was pulled almost five per cent lower amid reports that Sony was set to announce its first annual operating loss in 14 years.

Hong Kong fell more than two per cent -- its sixth consecutive loss -- as did Shanghai, while Sydney ended 0.7 per cent off and Bangkok dumped more than four per cent.

The Tokyo market was closed on Monday for a national holiday and was also catching up with two days of losses on Wall Street, where investors took fright at a jump in US unemployment on Friday.

Sony is reportedly set to sink into the red in the financial year to March and is likely to post an operating loss of 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) due to sagging demand and a stronger yen, the Nikkei business daily reported.

TOKYO: Down 4.79 per cent. The benchmark Nikkei-225 index dropped 422.89 points to 8,413.91. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 40.90 points, or 4.78 per cent, to 814.12.

Investors eyes’ are refocusing on the real economy, said Masatoshi Sato, a strategist at Mizuho Investors Securities.

HONG KONG: Down 2.2 per cent. The Hang Seng Index closed down 302.95 points at 13,668.05. Turnover was 47.28 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.06 billion US).

China Mobile fell 1.8 per cent to 72.20 dollars, extending its 13.5 per cent slide in the previous five sessions.

SYDNEY: Down 0.78 per cent. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 28.7 points to 3,654.6 on volume of 909.3 million shares worth 2.3 billion Australian dollars (1.6 billion US).

Energy and mining stocks weighed most on the market.

BHP Billiton eased 1.3 per cent to 30.43, while rival Rio Tinto dropped 2.3 per cent to 40.35 after announcing it would suspend a copper and gold mine development.

Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals was 3.8 per cent lower at 1.93.

SINGAPORE: Down 0.81 per cent. The Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 14.43 points to 1,761.82 on volume of 1.02 billion shares worth 1.08 billion Singapore dollars (724 million US).

The government will unveil the national budget on January 22, expected to help individuals and businesses cope with a recession.

KUALA LUMPUR: Down 1.1 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index lost 9.87 points to close at 913.70.

Naim rose 6.7 per cent to 1.44 ringgit and Media Prima was 2.8 per cent stronger at 1.10 ringgit, IOI Corp lost 5 per cent to 3.80 ringgit and KL Kepong was down 1.5 per cent at 9.85

ringgit.

JAKARTA: Down 0.5 per cent. The Jakarta Composite Index closed 6.82 points down at 1,399.73.

Nickel miner Inco lost 8.7 per cent to 2,375 rupiah, while coal miner Bumi Resources tumbled 8.8 per cent to 520 rupiah.

MUMBAI: Down 0.42 per cent. The 30-share Sensex index fell 38.69 points to 9,071.36, its fourth consecutive day of losses.

WELLINGTON: Up 0.23 per cent. The benchmark NZX-50 index was up 6.37 points at 2,774.64 on turnover worth 47.4 million dollars (26.39m US).

Fletcher Building was up four cents at 5.99 while Contact Energy fell six cents to 7.27.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose six cents to 3.20 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up a cent at 1.39.—AFP