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Tokyo's Nikkei follows Nasdaq down
Staff and wires
TOKYO, Japan -- Nasdaq's plunge to a six-year low has sent Asian markets tumbling Tuesday, with Tokyo's Nikkei average down three percent heading into afternoon trade. Major markets in South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong are also in the red. Wall Street's downturn Monday on nerves about military action against Iraq has quickly flowed through to Asia, and to Japan in particular. Coming back from a three-day weekend, Japanese tech stocks are taking a beating, with mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo off 5 percent and parent NTT down almost 6.5 percent. Japan's biggest chip-making equipment maker, Tokyo Electron, is off 7.58 percent to 4510 yen. Big banks weaker
The big banks are also well down. Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, is 6.1 percent lower to 246,000 yen. UFJ, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp are all off between 4.5 and 5 percent. The broader Topix index is down almost 2.5 percent to 903.70. The Nikkei 225 average finished the morning session down 3.06 percent to 9191.27. That means it has lost all the gains made after last Wednesday's surprise announcement by the Bank of Japan that it would buy shares directly from banks to shore up the financial system. Elsewhere in the region, both South Korea and Hong Kong are down more than 1 percent and Singapore's Straits Times is about 2 percent lower. Taiwan is 0.8 percent weaker and Australia's S&P/ASX200 is off 0.7 percent to 3025.4. New Zealand is also in the red, down 1.16 percent. In the U.S. Monday, the Nasdaq lost 2.96 percent to 1184.93, closing below 1200 for the first time since September 1996. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 1.43 percent to 7872.15. (Full story) Rate change unlikelyThe Federal Open Markets Committee meets later Tuesday to discuss interest rates, but most analysts expect the Fed will leave its benchmark rate unchanged at 1.75 percent. The Fed cut rates 11 times last year to help the U.S. economy but has yet to move this year. The downturn in Japanese telco sector stocks comes after U.S. company JDS Uniphase, the world's number-one maker of fiber-optic components, cut its first-quarter sales guidance. Furukawa Electric, Japan's biggest optical parts maker, is down 5.15 percent to 276 yen. Consumer electronics leader Sony Corp is off 2.88 percent to 5050 yen. Computer and chipmaker Fujitsu is 3.75 percent lower to 513 yen and Matsushita Electric Industrial is down 4.5 percent to 1295 yen. Korea telcos up
In South Korea, the Kospi is down about 0.92 percent to 673.20, with Samsung Electronics down 1.4 percent and Hyundai Motor off 1.56 percent. But telcos are higher, investor favorite SK Telecom up 0.66 percent and KT Corp up 1.16 percent. Big steelmaker Posco is doing worse than the Kospi index, off 2.27 percent to 107,500 won. In Australia, market movements are dominated by the resignation of AMP chief executive Paul Batchelor, following three days of sharp price slides flowing from problems with AMP's Pearl business in the U.K. (Full story) AMP is at a fresh record low, down 0.18 percent to A$11.39. Big resources stocks BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are both down by more than 1 percent. The big four banks are also weaker, with ANZ doing worst, off about 1 percent to A$18.67. But the No. 5 bank, St George, is up 1.1 percent. News Corp, the market's biggest stock, is providing another bright note, up 0.2 percent to A$9.10. In Singapore, bluechips are broadly lower. The big banks DBS, UOB and OCBC are all about 2.5 percent weaker. Singapore Airlines is down 2.9 percent. Taiwan's Taiex is off 0.8 percent to 4295.18, as industrials and some techs again taking a battering. Petrochemical stocks have fallen sharply for the second straight day, with Formosa Plastic off 6.85 percent to T$31.30 and Nan Ya Plastic down 6.76 percent to T$26.20. Chip foundry UMC is up 0.84 percent to T$23.90, but its larger rival TSMC, the market's biggest stock, is down about half a percent to T$41.90. Hong Kong is also broadly lower, with the Hang Seng index down about 1.66 percent to 9160.35 heading towards midday. Banking leader HSBC is down about 2 percent, as are the mobile twins, China Mobile and China Unicom. Property plays and utilities are also showing falls of about 2 percent. Hong Kong Electric is a rare gainer, up 0.6 percent to HK$32.60.
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