Asia ends another down day


Japan's Nikkei closed 2.35 percent lower Friday on Wall Street's decline

TOKYO, Japan -- Japan led Asian markets to a weaker close Friday in the wake of a fourth straight day of declines on Wall Street Thursday.

Every Asian index again suffered losses. But Singapore, Hong Kong and India were savaged, notching the biggest falls.

All closed with losses of more than 4 percent. India hit an eight-year closing low.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average closed 2.35 percent or 230 points lower at 9554.99. At one point Friday morning it touched a 17-year intraday low of 9382.95.

The broader capital-weighted TOPIX index was off 2.6 percent or 26.72 points at 998.2.

Japanese automakers took some of the biggest hits on expectations of reduced U.S. demand, with Nissan down 10 percent, Honda off 7.5 percent and Toyota down 6 percent.

Dow at lowest level in three years

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average closed Thursday down 4.3 percent or 383 points to 8376.21, its lowest level in almost three years.

Markets in Australasia, North Asia, Southeast Asia and India all took their cue from Wall Street's continuing slide.

The Dow has now lost more than 12 percent since U.S. stock markets reopened on Monday, with investors clearly worried that the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington last week may be pushing the U.S. economy into recession.

Slumping consumer confidence in the U.S. and a stronger yen are hurting prospects for Japanese exporters such as carmakers and consumer electronics makers, who rely heavily on the U.S. market.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 41.4 points or 1.4 percent to 2941.9, with most Blue Chip stocks falling. Banking giant NAB was a rare exception.

Across the Tasman, the NZSE Top 40 was down 11.62 points or 0.8 percent to 1806.57.

Landmark deal between Daewoo creditors, GM


NTT DoCoMo slipped 4.7 percent

In Seoul, the Kospi slid 1.8 percent or 7.96 points to 472.3, as the market weighed the signing Friday morning of a landmark deal between the creditors of bankrupt Korean automaker Daewoo and its U.S. suitor, General Motors.

GM and its partners paid $400 million for a two-thirds stake in a joint venture taking on much of the company.

In Tokyo, consumer electronics giant Sony Corp was down 230 yen or 5.1 percent to 4220 yen, while chipmaker Fujitsu was down 0.4 percent to 1096 yen and Hitachi was down 1.7 percent at 781 yen.

Japan's dominant mobile phone company, NTT DoCoMo, continued to fall. By the close it was at 1.43 million yen, down 70,000 yen or 4.7 percent. It likely faces increased competition with Vodafone taking a controlling stake in third-ranked J-Telecom.

Top automaker Toyota Motor Corp was down 180 yen or 6.1 percent to 2760 yen, while Honda did even worse, losing 270 yen or 7.5 percent to fall to 3300 yen.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily reported Friday that Toyota is to cut its domestic car sales plan for this year by 80,000 units to 1.8 million units as signs of slower sales emerge.

Banking giant off 5 percent

"The slide in U.S. stocks looks non-stop. This is not a good sign for Tokyo, especially for high-tech exporters," Yutaka Miura, deputy manager of equity information at Shinko Securities, told Reuters news agency.

Banking giant Mizuho Holdings dropped 5 percent to 518,000 yen as the market mulled reports of a financial reform "priority list".

Tokyo financial markets will be closed on Monday for a national holiday.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng closed with a loss of 4.1 percent. It's the worst performing index in Asia this year, thanks in part to its close links to U.S. stocks.

Its close of 8,934.20 was its lowest since October 1998. Global bank HSBC, the largest company listed in Hong Kong, fell 8.1 percent to HK$68.50 on concern the world economy would hurt earnings.

Internet and telecom company Pacific Century CyberWorks bucked the large losses. It rose 7.1 percent to HK$1.81, but traders said the gain mainly came as investors covered short positions after heavy selling.

Singapore stocks had a brutal day, too. The Straits Times index closed with a loss of 5.5 percent at 1,241.29. That was its lowest close in almost three years.

Fears of prolonged fighting elsewhere in the world drove stocks lower.

In India, Mumbai's main index closed down 5.85 percent at 2,600.12. That was its lowest close since September 1993.

Reuters contributed to this report.