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Nikkei closes at new 20-year low
TOKYO, Japan -- Japan's Nikkei average has closed at a fresh 20-year low Tuesday after a volatile day that saw it open lower, recover above 8000, and then fall again to finish at 7862.43. The 2.24 percent fall for the Nikkei was Asia's worst, though South Korea came close with a decline of 2.14 percent to a 16-month low. Other Asian markets also ended lower, reflecting investors' lack of confidence in global equities because of fears that a war in Iraq is imminent. The Nikkei tumbled to 7928 in the morning session before climbing back to 8059.89 at the midday break. But it fell hard again in the afternoon to its lowest close since January 24, 1983, when it finished at 7,833.99. Exporters and tech-related stocks were among the heaviest losers. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group tumbled a massive 11.6 percent to a record low of 206,000 yen, reflecting the market's dim view of some of the Japanese banks ahead of the March 31 financial year close. The 225-stock Nikkei average, which peaked at 38,915.87 in December 1989 at the height of Japan's asset bubble, has now lost almost 80 percent of its value in the past 13 years. The broader Topix index fell 1.77 percent to 770.62, its lowest since August 1984. Like the Nikkei, it had a brief midday spurt above Monday's close before losing ground in the afternoon. Elsewhere in the region, Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 continued to decline, slipping 0.66 percent to 2723.2, its lowest close since January 1999. Taiwan's Taiex fell 1.38 percent to 4260.45. Singapore's Straits Times index is trading in the red, at its lowest level in four years. Hong Kong meanwhile ended the day almost flat, down just 0.02 percent at 8,859.93 rebounding off an earlier low of 8,757.22. The Hang Send was kept afloat by bargain hunting in some key blue chips such as Beijing-backed conglomerate CITIC Pacific Ltd. New Zealand, which has been virtually the only market to show any gains over the past week, succumbed to the regional weakness Tuesday and finished down 0.3 percent to 1901.86. Wall Street dipped on Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling more than 2.2 percent to a five-month low of 7568.18, and the Nasdaq composite off 2.06 percent to 1278.37. (Full story) In Tokyo, speculation that war in Iraq is imminent again punished banks, insurers and prominent exporters such as Sony. Sony, the world's biggest consumer electronics maker, fell 2.86 percent to 4080 yen, a 17-month low. Canon fell 3.19 percent to 3940 yen. Other tech-related stocks such as Kyocera, Toshiba, Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu and Matsushita Electric lost between 2 and 4 percent. Banking giant SMFG has lost more than 20 percent this week after unlisted Taiyo Mutual Life Insurance said on Monday it planned to sell part of its shareholdings, including shares in two top banks -- believed to be SMFG and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group. MTFG, Japan's number three bank, hit a record low of 438,000 yen on Tuesday before closing 0.22 percent higher at 453,000 yen. The sector did show some gains, with UFJ Holdings up 2.44 percent at 126,000 yen. NTT DoCoMo, the market's biggest stock, gave up early gains to finish 3.37 percent lower at 201,000 yen. Among automakers, Nissan fell a sharp 5.31 percent to 785 yen and Toyota lost 2.88 percent to 2695 yen. Honda was higher early in the day, but finished down 0.75 percent at 3950 yen. Japan's Economics and Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said Tuesday that the government is not taking measures to boost stock prices. (Full story) Takenaka said current stock falls are short term and reflect geopolitical risks around the world. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily reported earlier that the government and Bank of Japan were considering massive liquidity injections and yen-selling intervention to shore up the financial system. Security concerns
In South Korea, the Kospi dipped 2.15 percent to 532.53, its lowest finish in 16 months, amid ongoing security fears on the Korean peninsula. The market's biggest stock, Samsung Electronics, held onto a 0.35 percent gain to 287,5000 won, and big exporter Hyundai Motor put on 1.63 percent to 21,850 won. The big loser was SK Telecom, down 12.27 percent to 143,000 won as the SK Group deals with accounting irregularities and allegations of illegal stock trading by group executives. (Full story) Big steelmaker Posco lost 5.3 percent to 92,900 won. In Taiwan, chip foundry TSMC, the market's biggest stock, lost 0.23 percent to T$42.50. In Hong Kong, banking group HSBC is down 1.2 percent to HK$82.00 as part of a broad market decline with war nervousness weighing heavily on investors. However, stocks in the CITIC Pacific group ended the day up almost 4 percent to HK$15.80 on expectations that it will report a surge in earnings on Wednesday. Australia's S&P/ASX200 finished at a four-year low of 2723.23 after sinking as low as 2702. Big-cap stock News Corp fell 1.78 percent to A$9.39 and BHP Billiton lost 1.49 percent to $A8.62. Telstra was slightly higher at A$4.10. But AMP continued to stumble in line with the London FTSE index, losing 6.03 percent Tuesday to another record low of A$5.92. In Singapore the Straits Times index is almost half a percent lower near the close, at 1208.67. SingTel and OCBC are higher, but DBS Group is down about half a percent. Reuters contributed to this report.
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