| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tokyo leads Asian plunge
TOKYO, Japan -- Fears that a war in Iraq may start next week drove Asian markets down again Monday, with Japan's key Nikkei average closing at a fresh 20-year low. The Nikkei lost 1.25 percent to finish at 8,042.26, after diving below the 8,000-point mark to touch 7975 in the afternoon session. That is its lowest level since March 1983 and follows last Friday's two-decade closing low of 8,144.12. The broader Topix index finished down 1.46 percent at 784.52, its lowest since August 1984. Big banks tumbled again, with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group losing more than 10 percent to another record low Japan's performance was the worst in the region, but Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore all lost ground. Only New Zealand moved against the trend. Its new Top 50, which was virtually the only index to gain ground last week, closed higher again Monday, up 0.326 percent to 1907.52. Australia, which ended at a four-year low on Friday, fell another 0.09 percent to 2741.4 for the S&P/ASX200. In Seoul, the Kospi eased 0.33 percent to 544.24. The loss would have been worse without a gain of almost 2 percent for the market's biggest stock, Samsung Electronics. In Tokyo, technology-related stocks saw some of the day's heaviest falls, with Softbank down more than 5.5 percent and Yahoo Japan off almost 10 percent. Tokyo Electron fell 5.35 percent to 4780 yen and Advantest, another tech bellwether, lost 3.13 percent to 4650 yen. Brand name makers Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Kyocera and Matsushita Electric Industrial fell between 2 and 3 percent. But the loss for big consumer electronics exporter Sony was relatively restrained, down 1.18 percent to 4200 yen. Canon, another big exporter, finished unchanged at 4070 yen. Automakers higher
After their big falls last week, some automakers showed a slight recovery, with Honda up 0.25 percent to 3980 yen and Nissan 1.59 percent higher at 829 yen. Toyota lost 0.36 percent to 2775 yen. A U.S.-led strike against Iraq would disrupt trade for Asia's export-driven economies, and higher oil prices would weigh on economic growth. As well, a weaker U.S. dollar hurts profits for big Japanese exporters such as Honda and Sony, which make a large part of their sales in the U.S. market. The dollar is trading at 116.63 yen in Asia late on Monday. Tokyo's biggest stock, mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, fell 3.26 percent to 208,000 yen, close to its one-year low of 201,000 yen seen last September. Big banks, insurers and brokers were also weaker. Taiyo Mutual Life Insurance confirmed Monday it may sell some of its shareholdings in two banks, believed to be Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group. SMFG plunged 10.04 percent to a new lifetime low of 233,000 yen, while MTFG fell 5.44 percent to 452,000 yen. UFJ Holdings lost 7.52 percent to 123,000 yen. There was no trade for Mizuho Holdings, which was removed from the Nikkei index last Thursday and will be replaced on Thursday by Mizuho Financial Group. In Australia, big-cap stocks Telstra, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton finished higher as the market eased down to a new four-year low. Media group News Corp dipped 0.21 percent to A$9.56. BHP Billiton rose 1.16 percent to A$8.75. But big banks NAB, Westpac and CBA fell. The troubles for insurer and funds manager AMP continued, with the stock at another record low of A$6.30, down 3.23 percent. In South Korea, big exporter Hyundai Motor lost 1.6 percent to 21,500 won. Steelmaker Posco fell 0.91 percent to 98,100 won and SK Telecom rose 1.24 percent to 163,000 won. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is 0.74 percent lower at 8840.85 near the close. Most moves are muted, with HSBC and other big banks either steady or slightly lower. Telco PCCW is up 2 percent to HK$4.875 after last week's heavy fall, but China Unicom is down again. In Taiwan, the Taiex fell 0.7 percent to 4319.99, with big stock TSMC up 2.4 percent to T$42.60. UMC was unchanged at T$19.20. In Singapore, the Straits Times index is down 0.28 percent at 1222.68 near the close, its lowest since November 1998. Banking groups DBS and OCBC are both higher, but SingTel is down 0.79 percent. Reuters contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
