Asia watch

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

Another overnight plunge in the US kept Far East markets in reverse gear today, with Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 Average briefly falling below 16,000 points for the first time in a year.

Hi-tech shares were again under strong selling pressure as the Nikkei, which touched 15,876, closed off 274.29 points at 16,044.44. It lost ground for the sixth day in succession.

Heavyweight Sony was down 5.3%, NTT Data continued its slide with a 10% fall, while mobiles affiliate NTT Docomo lost 3.5%. Foreign investors turned net sellers as declining shares outnumbered gainers by around two to one.

The broking sector staged a rebound after recent heavy falls, with Nomura Securities the volume leader, the shares up 4%.

In company news, computer games maker Nintendo warned there could be a delay in the launch of its new Game Boy portable player. Nintendo shares were down 1.5%.

Also hit by the hi-tech exodus was the Singapore market, where the Straits Times index, which normally trades in a tight range, plunged 4%, or 74.53 points, to 1831.15, another low for the year.

Emphasising the trend, the electronics sector sagged 5.3% as investors baled out of sector leaders such as Creative Technology and Venture Manufacturing.

Seoul was also badly hit, the Kospi resuming its recent slide with a fall of more than 3%, or 21.42 points, to 658.34. The tech-heavy Kosdaq market lost 4.3%.

Blue-chip Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest producer of memory chips, slid 5.5%, while investors also dumped telecoms shares.

The bank sector provided a ray of hope, spiking 8% in response to recent Government suggestions that nationalised banks could be merged. There was no respite in Hong Kong either, as the blue-chip Hang Seng fell through the 14,000-point level, off 288.30 to 13,968.21.

Market leader China Telecom fell 4%, while Hutchison Whampoa, which hit a year high HK$152 only two months ago, lost another 3% to trade at HK$87.75.

Brokers say China Telecom is suffering from the forthcoming listing of rival mainland telco China Unicom, with investors cashing out as they wait for the Unicom float. The rally among China plays also ran out of steam, with H-share and red-chip indices sharply lower.

More falls for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation weighed on Sydney, the All Ordinaries falling 23.5 to 2997.9.

News lost 71 cents to A$18.35, trailing the New York-listed American Depositary Receipts. Falls were limited, however, by a revival of buying interest in leading bank shares, while miner WMC hit a three-month high after issuing a promising drilling report from a copper and nickel deposit in Western Australia.

The bleak outlook for new offerings was reportedly undermining institutional interest in the float of Vodafone Pacific, set to be launched on Friday. Vodafone is selling off 17% of its Australian operations, but there are rumblings from fund managers, who are losing confidence in the telecoms sector.

Jakarta's Composite hit a 12-month low, down 4.67 to 490.84 as the global gloom combined with the rupiah's continued fall.

Malaysia's Composite slipped to a three-week low, down 10.90 to 906.39, Thailand's SET lost 4.77 to 321.22, and Taiwan's Composite fell 100.32 to 8570.69.

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