|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asia follows gloomy U.S. lead
Staff and wires
TOKYO, Japan -- Markets in Asia are broadly lower heading into Wednesday afternoon, following another down day on Wall Street and a gloomy outlook for the U.S. economy. Tokyo's Nikkei is off 0.33 percent to 9291.03 at the end of the morning session, after going as low as 9106.45. The broader capital-weighted Topix is down 0.6 percent to 910.50. Taiwan and Singapore are showing the heaviest losses in the region, with the Taiex down more than 2 percent and the Straits Times index off 2.7 percent. South Korea's Kospi is also in the red, off 1.6 percent to 661.55. Hong Kong is down about half a percent heading towards midday. Australia's S&P/ASX200 is down about 1 percent to 3003.7 after earlier dipping below 3000 for the first time since early August. Talk of a possible war with Iraq, dim profit forecasts and disappointment that the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged sent the Dow down 2.4 percent on Tuesday to its worst close since October 1, 1998. The Fed said the U.S. economy still risked weakness. (Full story) Dow, Nasdaq weaker
The Dow closed at 7683.13, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, which hit a six-year low Monday, eased another 0.23 percent to 1182.17. (Full story) In Australia, the embattled financial services company AMP rebounded Wednesday to A$11.67 from an early fall to a record low of A$10.73, after it said capital problems with its U.K. business were "manageable". AMP's chief executive Paul Batchelor resigned Tuesday to take responsibility for the company's disappointing share performance, which stems from disclosure concerns over the capital position of its Pearl operations in the U.K. (Full story) Those concerns initially were seen as accelerating after the FTSE index in London fell below the crucial 3700-point threshold to 3646 Tuesday, but AMP said it could handle a fall down to 3000. Australia's biggest stock, media group News Corp, is weighing down the market. News is off 3.6 percent to A$9.04. In Tokyo, the big Japanese banks have rebounded from early falls to be in the black, but telco stocks and automakers are in the red. Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, is up 2 percent to 256,000 yen. Nissan Motor is down 2.5 percent to 902 yen and Honda is off 1.4 percent to 5030 yen. The dollar is stronger, trading in Asia at 122.60 yen at midday. Mitsubishi deal
Mitsubishi Electric Corp is 1 percent higher at 384 yen. The company said it is talking to other chipmakers about its operations. (Full story) The Nihon Keizai business daily said Wednesday Mitsubishi Electric is in final talks with Hitachi and NEC to sell its DRAM division to the merged DRAM operation of the two partners as early as April. The deal would create the world's fourth-largest DRAM maker, surpassing Germany's Infineon, the report said. Toshiba, the biggest chipmaker, is up almost 2 percent to 368 yen. Rival Fujitsu is 1.5 percent higher to 526 yen and Hitachi has put on more than 3.2 percent to 636 yen. NEC has shown the biggest gain, up 3.7 percent to 588 yen. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is down 2.36 percent at 2275 yen after hitting a 29-month low of 2270 yen. Japan's largest power utility has been battered by revelations that it covered up evidence of cracks at reactors. Samsung Electronics downIn Seoul, the market's two biggest stocks are weaker. Samsung Electronics is down 2.8 percent to 310,000 won and telco SK Telecom is 1.95 percent lower at 226,000 won. Big steelmaker Posco continues to decline, and is off 5.2 percent to 100,500 won. Hana Bank is up 2.8 percent to 16,550 won on reports it will sign a deal to take over Seoulbank on Friday. Kookmin Bank is also higher, up 2.5 percent to 47,000 won. Hong Kong bluechips are broadly lower. Big bank HSBC is down 2 percent, property player Sun Hung Kai Properties is off 1.1 percent and mobile giant China Mobile is down about 0.8 percent. In Singapore, banking leader DBS Group is continuing to ease, giving up another 3.4 percent to S$11.20. Singapore Airlines and SingTel are both down almost 3 percent. Taiwan's industrial sector is again weaker, led down by textiles, cement and petrochemicals. In the tech sector, TSMC is up about half a percent to T$42.50, but rival UMC is just in the red. Reuters contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
