Asian stocks tumble on fresh US woes
HONG KONG, Feb 6: Asian shares slumped on Wednesday after new data stoked fears of a looming US recession, helping to push the Japanese stock market down nearly five per cent.
Tokyo’s Nikkei-225 index ended the day down 4.7 percent as Asia’s trading screens turned red following a 2.9 per cent drop in the US stock market on Tuesday.
Hong Kong fell more than five percent, while Sydney and Singapore both slipped more than three percent. All regional bourses fell except for a clutch shut mainly for the Lunar New Year holiday break.
Figures released Tuesday showing a very sharp contraction in the US service sector triggered fresh concerns that the world’s largest economy faces recession.
The data, together with suggestions of a slowdown in the eurozone, caused global stock market turbulence.
Share prices had previously regained some stability after a terrible start to the year in the wake of steep Federal Reserve interest rates cuts and a 145-billion-dollar US economic stimulus package.
TOKYO: Japanese share prices plunged 4.70 per cent after heavy losses on Wall Street sparked by growing fears of a recession in the United States, dealers said.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index lost 646.26 points to end at 13,099.24. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 57.07 points or 4.21 percent to 1,298.41.
Toyota Motor rose 0.4 percent to 5,800 after the group reported a record third-quarter operating profit.
Japan Tobacco (JT) dropped 0.9 percent to 572,000 and Nissin Food Products retreated 7.8 percent to 3,300.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices slumped 5.4 per cent, dealers said.
The Hang Seng Index closed the holiday-shortened day 1,339.24 points lower at 23,469.46. Turnover was 70.66 billion Hong Kong dollars (9.10 billion US).
The markets are reacting to the poor service sector data that came out of the US last night, Castor Pang, a strategist with Sun Hung Kai Financial.
But losses on the Hang Seng and H-share index are overdone compared to other Asian markets like Tokyo.
SYDNEY: Australian shares fell 3.2 percent, dealers said.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 shed 183.5 points to 5,609.4 while the broader All Ordinaries ended down 174.5 points, or 3.0 per cent, at 5,677.6. Turnover was 1.51 billion shares worth 6.94 billion dollars (6.24 billion US).
SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices closed 3.50 per cent lower, dealers said.
The blue chip Straits Times Index was 106.33 points lower at 2,932.09 on volume of 802 million shares worth 1.43 billion Singapore dollars (1.01 billion US).
DBS Group Holdings was 58 cents lower at 17.02 Singapore dollars. CapitaLand declined 26 cents to 5.68. Singapore Telecommunications fell 19 cents to 3.71.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian share prices fell 1.2 per cent, dealers said. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) ended down 16.41 points at 1,415.94.
Maybank was unchanged at 12.10 ringgit, national power utility Tenaga declined 15 sen to 9.25 ringgit and state-run Telekom Malaysia was flat at 11.40 ringgit.
Sime Darby, the world’s largest listed palm oil producer, fell 10 sen to 11.90 ringgit.
MUMBAI: Indian share prices closed down 2.81 per cent, dealers said.
The 30-share Sensex index fell 523.67 points to 18,139.49.
We expect the market to correct further as concerns linked to the US economy are real, said Bhaskar Kapadia, a partner with Pyramid Securities.—AFP