HONG KONG, April 14: Asian stocks tumbled on Monday as concerns about US corporate earnings, low American consumer confidence and the poor global economic outlook shook investors, punishing shares in Japan and China.

Tokyo tumbled just over three per cent and China slid more than 5.6 per cent as trading screens across Asia turned red. Hong Kong fell nearly 3.5 per cent with Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore all down too.

Investors took their cue from New York where the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 250 points on Friday after General Electric said its profits were hit by the credit market turmoil and downgraded its outlook.

A Group of Seven (G7) meeting of finance leaders at the weekend provided little solace, concluding that global economic prospects had deteriorated and expressing worry at the US dollar’s slide.

TOKYO: Japanese share prices tumbled 3.05 per cent after heavy losses on Wall Street sparked by disappointing earnings news and a weak consumer confidence survey, dealers said.

They said signs of growing gloom among world finance chiefs about the economic outlook had added to pressure on the market.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 406.22 points to end at 12,917.51. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares declined 32.38 points or 2.53 per cent to 1,246.24.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices closed down 3.47 per cent, dealers said.

The Hang Seng index closed down 856.59 points at 23,811.20. Turnover was low at 74.85 billion Hong Kong dollars (9.61 billion US).

Many investors were hesitant to take new positions until numerous uncertainties (related to) US and China data and first-quarter earnings of major US banks are cleared, said Matt McKeith of First State Investments.

SYDNEY: Australian shares closed down 1.8 per cent, dealers said.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed down 96.9 points at 5,342.4, while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 94.3 points at 5,410.9.

Volume traded was a low one billion shares, worth 4.3 billion dollars (3.9 billion US).

Low-cost carrier Virgin Blue suffered one of the largest drops, plunging 21.6 per cent to 87 cents.

SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices closed 2.68 per cent lower, dealers said.

The Straits Times Index slipped 83.91 points to 3,042.96. on volume of 1.11 billion shares worth 1.41 billion Singapore dollars (1.04 billion US).

DBS Group losing 48 cents to 19.18 Singapore dollars. CapitaLand slipped 21 cents to 6.26. Singapore Airlines dropped 46 cents to 15.24.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian share prices closed down 1.1 per cent, dealers said.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) closed 13.36 points lower at 1,233.43.

Maybank was flat at 8.25 ringgit. Palm oil firm Sime Darby tumbled 2.8 per cent to 8.85 ringgit. Astro slumped 2.9 per cent to 3.30 ringgit.

JAKARTA: Indonesian shares closed 1.4 per cent lower, dealers said.

The Jakarta composite index closed down 31.45 points or 1.4 per cent at 2,272.45.

Telkom lost 1.6 per cent at 9,000 rupiah, coal giant Bumi Resources dropped 1.7 per cent to 5,750 rupiah, and Unilever Indonesia fell 3.6 per cent to 6,700 rupiah.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand share prices closed 0.51 per cent lower, dealers said.

The NZX-50 gross index fell 17.88 points to 3,470.96.

Telecom rose four cents to close at 3.62 dollars. It had earlier touched a 15-year low of 3.56. Auckland Airport rose three cents to 2.16 dollars Retail sales data for February showed a seven per cent fall.—AFP