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Asia opens lower on U.S. gloom
Staff and wires
TOKYO, Japan -- Markets in Asia have opened lower Wednesday following another losing day on Wall Street. Tokyo's Nikkei is down about 1.35 percent to 9195.62 in early trade. The broader capital-weighted Topix is down 1.3 percent to 904.13. South Korea's Kospi is also in the red, off 1.2 percent to 664.09 and Australia's S&P/ASX200 is down 1.1 percent to 2999.3 -- the first time it has been below 3000 since early August. Taiwan and Singapore have also opened lower. 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. Dow, Nasdaq weakerThe 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. In Australia, the embattled financial services company AMP is continuing to fall, losing another 4 percent and plunging to A$10.82 after the FTSE index in London fell below the crucial 3700-point threshold. AMP's chief executive Paul Batchelor resigned Tuesday to take responsibility for the company's disappointing share performance, which stems from capital problems for its Pearl business in the U.K. Australia's biggest stock, media group News Corp, is also weighing down the market. News is off 4 percent to A$9.00. In Tokyo, big banks are again lower, as are telco stocks, automakers and some other tech-related issues. Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, is down 2.4 percent to 245,000 yen. Nissan Motor is down 3.2 percent to 895 yen. Mitsubishi dealMitsubishi Electric Corp is steady at 380 yen. The company 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 Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. The deal would create the world's fourth-largest DRAM maker, surpassing Germany's Infineon, the report said Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is down 2.15 percent at 2280 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. Third-largest utility Chubu Electric Power Co has also come under pressure after it said last week that it would temporarily shut a nuclear reactor after confirming evidence of cracked pipes. Chubu is down 2.31 percent at 2115 yen. In Seoul, Samsung Electronics is down 1.7 percent to 313,500 won, SK Telecom is 1.3 percent lower at 227,500 won and big steelmaker Posco continues to decline, off 4.7 percent to 101,000 won. Reuters contributed to this report.
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