Asian markets in weak start to week


Koizumi signs the guest book at the Parliament building in Jakarta on his fourth stop in a five-nation Southeast Asian tour

HONG KONG, China -- Asian markets opened slightly weaker on Monday, partly due to a warning from U.S. Fed Reserve chief Alan Greenspan that the United States economy still faced considerable hurdles ahead of any recovery.

In Seoul, shares opened slightly lower led by banking shares ahead of pending quarterly corporate results and a disappointing Wall Street overnight performance.

The benchmark Kospi was off 0.05 percent to 627.00, while the over-the-counter Kosdaq rose 0.03 percent to 75.04.

Investors are wary ahead of key U.S. earnings and the release of corporate results, including Samsung Electronics due this week.

Samsung advanced 0.8 percent to 308,500.

In Tokyo, the markets are closed for the Coming of Age Day holiday. Trading will resume Tuesday.

The Nikkei average dropped for a fourth straight session on Friday, falling 0.92 percent to 10,441.59. The capital-weighted Topix index slid 1.01 percent to 999.94.

Investors were cautious over the country's weak fundamentals, particularly on the bad-debt woes of Japanese banks.

Fed warning

In Australia, the stock market opened easier after more bad news from Wall Street, and a warning from Fed Reserve chief Alan Greenspan.

The benchmark S&P/ASX lost 0.33 percent to 3,406.4, also weighed down by a 1.2 percent fall in media giant News Corp.

While in New Zealand, shares opened slightly weaker in light trade with brokers keeping a close watch on two ongoing takeover bids.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was down 0.2 percent at 2,100.

Brokers are closely watching Frucor, a subject of a takeover bid from French food group Danone, and power company Contact Energy by parent Edison Mission Energy.

Danone said shortly after the market open that it had bought another five percent of Frucor, taking its holding to 44.1 percent ahead of Friday's deadline acceptances.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 0.80 percent at 9,987.53, while the teach-heavy Nasdaq slipped 1.21 percent to 2,022.46