Asia follows Wall St. down
(CNN) -- Asian stocks closed broadly lower Thursday, giving up the previous day's gains after a plunge on Wall Street overnight.
South Korea posted the biggest fall, dropping 1.4 percent.
The Nikkei 225 stock average finished down 1.3 percent to 11,285.04. On Wednesday, the benchmark index rose 1.56 percent.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 0.82 percent to 1144.31. The Topix gained 1.25 percent Wednesday.
Tokyo technology stocks were sharply lower as major losses by U.S. counterparts put a dampener on the market.
Kyocera was down 3 percent to 8210 yen, and there were falls of up to 2 percent for other tech-related issues such as NEC, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Hitachi.
Among the big banks, MTFG was down 0.9 percent to 1.09 million yen and Mizuho eased 0.23 percent to 440,000 yen. But UFJ put on 1.3 percent to 453,000 yen.
Automakers were also lower, with a fall of 0.85 percent for Nissan and 0.5 percent for Toyota.
But mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo continued to recover, closing up another 3.3 percent to 187,000 yen. Yahoo Japan was up 3.6 percent to 953,000 yen on a strong earnings result.
The dollar is quoted at 109.65 yen late Thursday, compared with the 109.86 yen it bought in New York Wednesday.
In Seoul, the Kospi finished down 1.42 percent to 742.63, with Samsung Electronics off about 2.8 percent to 417,500 won. Big exporter Hyundai Motor lost just 0.1 percent to 44,250 won. On Wednesday the Kospi finished 2.16 percent ahead to 752.93.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 closed down 0.73 percent to 3498.3, following Wednesday's 0.27 percent gain to 3512.9.
The market's biggest stock, media group News Corp, dropped 1.8 percent to A$12.04. Resources leader BHP Billiton ended 0.9 percent lower to A$12.75.
Leading bank NAB continued its decline, falling 2.3 percent to A$27.16.
New Zealand's Top 50, which closed at a record high Wednesday, was a rare gainer in Asia, putting on another 0.51 percent to finish at a fresh high of 2757.64. Telecom NZ was up 0.8 percent to NZ$6.13.
In Taiwan, the Taiex finished 0.39 percent lower to 5387.96. Wednesday's big gainer, chip foundry TSMC, was down 0.23 percent to T$43.30.
In Singapore, the Straits Times index is off 0.45 percent to 1864.81, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is 0.7 percent lower to 12,311.84. Hutchison Whampoa is almost 1 percent in the red.
On Wall Street Wednesday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index sank more than 2 percent to its lowest close in nine months, slumping 2.2 percent to 1,874.37. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1 percent to 10,046.13. (Full story)
