Nikkei tumbles on U.S. tech nerves


Tech stocks such as NEC, Fujitsu and DoCoMo are down sharply in Tokyo

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Asian markets are lower by midday Tuesday, with Japan down more than 2 percent after Wall Street's heavy slide.

The downturn initially was widespread, taking its cue from the ongoing jitters about prospects for corporate recovery in the U.S., where the Dow was off almost 2 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.14 percent Monday.

Aside from Japan, South Korea suffered the biggest fall, down about 1.3 percent.

Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore were all initially weaker, but the latter three are making up ground late in the morning session.

Investors back from Japan's Golden Week holidays saw no reason to buy, with the stronger yen and the tech nerves coming out of the U.S. depressing export-oriented stocks such as makers of motor vehicles and consumer electronics.

Big banks are also lower, with Mizuho Holdings down 3.6 percent to 267,000 yen.

DoCoMo down sharply

By the end of the morning session, the benchmark Nikkei 225 average was down 246.80 points or 21.4 percent to 11,304.21. The broader capital-weighted Topix was off 13.56 points or 1.25 percent to 1072.94.

Mobile phone leader NTT DoCoMo, which reports on Wednesday, slumped almost 4 percent to 314,000 yen, while parent NTT eased 1.6 percent to 497,000 yen.

Tech stocks took a severe hit, with Sony, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba, Canon, Matsushita Electric and Mitsubishi Electric all down.

Fujitsu tumbled 5.6 percent to 926 yen, NEC lost more than 5 percent to 926 yen, Toshiba was off 4.3 percent to 548 yen and Sony fell 1.3 percent to 6760 yen.

Among automakers, Honda was off 1.5 percent to 5750 yen and Toyota dropped 2.6 percent to 3380 yen.

Industrial stocks such as Nippon Steel and NKK gained, as did bank Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group.

Troubled Snow Brand Milk fell 18 percent in early trade after a report it will slash its capital.

Hynix falls again


Hynix was down again Tuesday

In Seoul, where chipmakers Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor again lost ground, the Kospi was off 10.83 points or 1.3 percent to 816.04.

Hynix remains out of favor after its board last week rebuffed a $3 billion merger with U.S. rival Micron Technology. Hynix shares tumbled almost 8 percent to a record low of 650 won in the morning session.

Telcos KT Corp and SK Telecom moved against the trend, putting on 0.7 percent and 1.05 percent respectively.

KT Corp, the country's biggest fixed-line telco, hopes to raise $5 billion from a share and bond sale, while wireless SK Telecom reported a strong first-quarter profit result Monday.

In Australia, market heavyweight News Corp continued its slide, losing another 13 cents or 1.1 percent to A$11.58 ahead of an expected heavy writedown of its GemStar -TV Guide International investment when it reports third-quarter results next week.

News had lost 60 cents or about 5 percent on Monday, its lowest level since late 1999.

Tuesday morning's fall in the media giant helped take the benchmark S&P/ASX200 to 3326.1, a drop of 19.3 points or 0.58 percent. That is its lowest level since December last year.

Retailer Coles Myer was another casualty, dropping 4.3 percent to A$6.19 following Monday's 16 percent fall after a shock profit downgrade.

Financial services group AMP slipped more than 2.2 percent to A$17.30 after its quarterly results disappointed investors.

Hong Kong recovering

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is recovering late in the morning session and is down just 0.3 percent to 11,697 near the end.

Banking leader HSBC is off about 0.8 percent, while Hutchison Whampoa is down 0.7 percent to HK$69.50.

Property stocks are lower, with Sun Hung Kai Properties down 1.45 percent to HK$67.75.

After a soft start, Taiwan's Taiex is essentially flat, up 2.19 points to 5644.67.

Leading chip foundry TSMC is up 1.2 percent to T$82, while rival UMC is unchanged at T$49.

In Singapore, the Straits Times index has also clawed its way back into the black, and is up 3.45 points or 0.2 percent to 1725.50 in late morning trade.

SingTel is marginally higher at S$1.51, as are banks OCBC and UOB. But bank leader DBS is down 0.7 percent to S$13.70.