Asia follows Wall St. down
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Asian sharemarkets have posted big falls Thursday, with South Korea down almost 3 percent and Taiwan 2.6 percent lower after a plunge on Nasdaq.
Singapore and Hong Kong were also off sharply.
The Japanese market was closed Thursday for a national holiday.
In Australia, mining stocks pushed the S&P/ASX200 down 1.26 percent, with BHP Billiton dropping 3.5 percent to A$11.50.
BHP and fellow miners Rio Tinto, WMC Resources and Alumina were off sharply on concerns that Chinese demand for metals may fall as China moves to cool its economy. (Full story)
Big steelmaker Bluescope, which has expanded its capacity in China recently, plunged 8.5 percent to A$5.94.
In Seoul, the Kospi closed off 2.93 percent to 875.41.
Market leader Samsung Electronics was 4.3 percent lower to 576,000 won and big exporter Hyundai Motors was down more than 3 percent to 45,000 won after posting first-quarter earnings.
Hyundai ranked in the top three of a car quality survey just released in the United States. (Full story)
Leading chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor ended down 5.3 percent to 10,6500 won.
In Taiwan, the Taiex closed 2.62 percent lower to 6402.21. Chip foundry UMC slipped 3.4 percent to T$31.40 and larger rival TSMC was off 2.4 percent to T$60.50.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is about 2 percent lower to 11,926.50 near the close, with China Mobile down 1.4 percent and Hutchison Whampoa more than 2.3 percent lower.
Singapore's Straits Times index is about 1.6 percent lower to 1819.73, led by a 4.3 percent fall to S$1.54 for chipmaker Chartered Semiconductor.
In New Zealand, where the central bank lifted interest rates by 0.25 percentage points Thursday to 5.5 percent, the Top 50 index finished 0.6 percent lower to 2640.25. (Full story)
Telecom NZ was down 0.7 percent to NZ$5.64.
The declines among Asian techs followed the sharp selloff on Wall Street Wednesday which saw the Nasdaq close 2.1 percent lower to 1989.54. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 1.3 percent to 10,342.60. (Full story
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On Wednesday, Japanese stocks closed mixed as investors reacted to the latest industrial production figures and a swag of earnings reports. Techs such as Toshiba and Sony were big losers, but banks made solid gains.
The Nikkei 225 average finished down 0.34 percent to 12,004.29. The broader Topix was up 0.16 percent to 1206.92. That follows the Nikkei's 1 percent fall Tuesday, a day after the average closed at a 33-month high.
