Asian markets shattered as wall street sinks deeper

Shanghai, Hang Seng extend losses while Nikkei also enters the losers club with 6.7% fall

The stock markets across the Asian region closed lower after Wall Street fell overnight on profit taking from recent sharp rises and recession fears following disappointing earnings reported by big name companies such as Dupont, Caterpillar, and Texas Instruments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down by 231 points, to 9,033. The Nasdaq Composite Index finished lower by 73 points at 1,696. S&P 500 finished lower by 30 points at 955.

Crude oil prices fell for a second day after the U.S. dollar climbed to a 20-month high against the euro, reducing the appeal of commodities as a hedge. Crude oil for December delivery declined as much as $3.28, or 4.5%, to $68.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded at $69.10 a barrel at 2:33 p.m. Singapore time. The November contract expired yesterday, after declining $3.36 to settle at $70.89 a barrel. Prices, which have tumbled 53 percent from the record $147.27 on July 11, are down 21 percent from a year ago.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell against the Japanese yen. The U.S. dollar fell to the mid 99-yen levels in late Tokyo deals from the lower 100-yen range in early trade and lower 101-yen levels late Tuesday in Tokyo. The Japanese yen also gained against the euro.

The Australian dollar closed down 3.28% as ongoing fears about a global recession dragged commodity prices and high-yielding currencies lower. The Aussie finished the domestic session at US$0.6687-0.6692, down from Tuesday's close of US$0.6914-0.6919.

The New Zealand dollar fell against the U.S. dollar ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's interest rate decision. The central bank is expected to cut the official cash rate by 100 basis points. The kiwi finished the domestic session at US$0.6020, down from US$0.6144 in early trade and US$0.6178 late Tuesday.

The South Korean won fell 3.1% against the dollar. The won finished the session at 1,362.0-1,363.1 a dollar, after hitting a low of 1,399.9 a dollar, its weakest since October 10, compared to Tuesday's domestic close of 1,320.1 a dollar.

The Philippines peso edged down to a new 18-month low against its US counterpart today morning in Asia. The peso plunged to 48.6650 against the US dollar, compared to yesterday's close of 48.1750.

Coming back in equities, the Japanese stock market tumbled nearly 7%, ending its three-day winning streak. Worries about the grim outlook for Japanese firms' earnings and a stronger yen dented investor sentiment. The market opened lower following an overnight retreat on Wall Street, but Japanese stocks widened their losses in the afternoon on a flurry of bad news that aggravated fears about the global slowdown. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 631.56 points or 6.79% to end at 8,674.69, posting its biggest loss in a week, and the broader Topix index of all first-section issues lost 67.41 points or 7.05% to 889.23.

On economic front, all industry activity index, which captures the monthly change in overall production by all industries of the Japanese economy, fell 1.8%. The indices of all industry activity except agriculture, forestry and fisheries declined 1.8% in August as compared to a 0.8% rise in July. Indices of Industrial Production plunged 4.1%, while indices of building work and indices of tertiary industry activity declined 2.4% and 1.4% respectively in the month of August as against the previous month.

In Mainland China, the benchmark index closed sharply lower after some key companies reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings, heightening worries about the impact of the global slowdown. In addition to this yesterday, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation said in a joint statement that China will raise export rebates on textiles, toys and apparel and some other products next month to support exporters amid declining external demand. The Shanghai Composite Index finished lower for a second day, down 62.71 points or 3.20% to end at 1,895.82 while the Shenzhen A-share Index fell 8.84 points or 1.62 pct to 536.53.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index struggled for a came back in the positive territory closing the day in negative territory. The benchmark index closed down by 5.15% at 14,266.50, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slumped by 7.79% to 6,700.87.

The Australian stock market plunged more than 3% on profit taking after posting sharp gains in the previous two trading sessions. The key S&P/ASX index lost most of the previous session's gains, led by BHP Billiton and Westfield. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 146.4 points, or 3.4%, at 4,156.1, its lowest point for the day. The broader All Ordinaries index lost 131.4 points or 3.1% to 4,120.0.

On the economic front, Australia's rate of inflation increased by more than expected in the third quarter. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the country's Consumer Price Index for the three months to September increased 1.2% over the previous quarter. Annually, CPI grew to 5.0%.

The New Zealand stock market closed sharply lower, ending a three-day winning streak. The benchmark NZX 50 index closed down 52.62 points or 1.78% at 2,899.40 after surging 2.15% on yesterday. The broader NZX All Capital index shed 40.21 points or 1.34% to 2,953.46.

On the economic front, Statistics New Zealand reported that visitor arrivals in September dropped 7.0% to 157,700 from the 168,800 reported for September 2007. For the full year to September 2008, there were 2.469 million visitor arrivals, down 6,200 or less than 1% from the previous 12-month period. New Zealand resident departures were down 8.0% compared to September 2007.

The South Korean stock market plunged more than 5% to a new three year-low on deepening economic fears, extending its modest losses registered yesterday. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index or Kospi closed down 61.51 points or 5.14% at 1,134.59 points, its lowest close since September 6, 2005. In intraday trading, the key index fell more than 8% to hit a low of 1,095.56. The Kospi has shed 22% over the month, and is down 40% from the year's high of 1,901 hit in mid-May.

In Taiwan, Taiex - the benchmark index continued to remain below the key 5,000 points level breaching the previous five-year low level. The weighted index closed down 80.13 points or 1.62% at 4,862.59 - the lowest level since 11 June 2003 when it ended at 4,804.65 points. The market was distracted by fears that an anti-government demonstration planned by the opposition for Saturday could turn violent.

On the economic front, Taiwan's unemployment rate was 4.27% in September, versus 4.14% in August and 3.99% in September 2007, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said. In the first nine months of the year, unemployment averaged 3.96%, versus 3.92% a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the September unemployment rate was 4.12%, compared with 3.93% in August and 3.89% a year earlier.

In Malaysia, the Kula Lumpur composite index was down by 13.88 points or 1.51% at 904.28. On economic front, the international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia amounted to RM371.8 billion, equivalent to USD107.6 billion as on 15 October 2008, 2% down from RM379.3 billion as recorded on 30 September 2008. The reserves position is sufficient to finance 8.7 months of retained imports and is 4 times the short-term external debt.

In India, the weakness prevailed on the regional bourses in mid-afternoon trade on declined in global markets, cautious outlook by IT firm Wipro and sustained selling by foreign funds. At 15.20 IST the BSE Sensex was down 522.16 points or 4.86%. The S&P CNX Nifty was down 5.33% to 3,062.40.

Elsewhere, the Philippines stock market tumbled 1.12% or 23.73 points to 2,093.01 while Singapore Strait Times was trading lower by 99.66 points or 5.19% trading at 1,821.13.

In other regional markets, European shares fell with commodity-sector firms leading decliners as BHP Billiton added to growing evidence that the global economy continues to deteriorate.

The U.K. FTSE 100 index fell 1.9% to 4,150.07, the German DAX 30 index dropped 2.5% to 4,662.77 and the French CAC-40 index slid 2.5% to 3,389.53.