Asian markets follow wall street

Hang Seng, Kospi Plunge by about 7% while Nikkei manage 6.5% fall

The stock markets across the Asian region suffered deep losses after Wall Street plunged overnight, shrugging off the mood of optimism surrounding Barack Obama's election, as economic data revealed deep cuts in employment by private employers and a contraction in services sector activity in October.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 5.1% to 9,139.27, as investors worried about the task ahead for President-elect Barack Obama in dealing with the poor shape of the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 index sank 5.3% to 952.77, while the Nasdaq Composite shrank 5.5% to 1,681.64.

In commodity market, crude oil prices dropped to $65 a barrel in the Asian session on signs of slowing demand. December crude-oil futures slipped 56 cents to $64.74 a barrel in electronic trading recently, after dropping $5.23 to $65.30 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar strengthened to the lower 98-yen levels in late Tokyo deals. The dollar was quoted at 98.07-98.10 yen compared to the upper 97-yen range in early trade and mid 99-yen levels late Wednesday in Tokyo.

The Chinese yuan weakened to 6.8274 a dollar in over-the-counter trading, down from Wednesday's close of 6.8240.

The Australian dollar fell from the recent two-week highs on Thursday, as mounting worries about a global economic slowdown offset strong employment data. In late trade, the Aussie was quoted at US$0.6724, off a session high of US$0.6815 hit soon after the jobs data was released, and down from US$0.6888 late Wednesday. The local unit struck a two-week peak of US$0.7015 on Monday.

The New Zealand dollar closed weaker as investors avoided riskier currencies. However, it rallied a little after the unemployment data came in slightly better than expected. The kiwi finished the domestic session at US$0.5930, down from Wednesday's close of US$0.6048.

The South Korean won fell sharply against the greenback. The won ended at 1,330.8 a dollar, down from Wednesday's close 1,266.0 a dollar. The won has dipped about 29 percent to the dollar so far this year.

US dollar showed strength against the Philippine peso today during early Asian deals. The dollar-peso pair hit a 2-day high of 48.5850 compared to 48.0050 hit late New York Wednesday. The pair is currently trading at 48.47.

Coming back in equities, China's main stock index dropping to a more than two-year low while benchmarks in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan slumped more than 5%.

The Japanese stock market plummeted on Thursday, recording its biggest one-day loss in nearly two weeks, as a stronger yen hit exporters amid renewed fears about a global economic slowdown. Automakers tumbled on worries about sliding earnings due to the global financial crisis. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 622.1 points or 6.58% to close at 8,899.1 after posting sharp gains for the previous two sessions. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed down 57.6 points or 5.96% at 909.3.

On the economic front, the minutes from the October 6-7 meeting showed no clear signs that the Bank of Japan's policy board was considering a rate cut at that meeting, ahead of its decision to slice rates to 0.3% on October 31. Japan's government pressed the Bank of Japan to join global efforts to contain the global financial crisis in the weeks leading up to the central bank's first rate cut in seven years, the minutes showed.

Meanwhile, Japan's Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report that the leading index rose to 89.2 in September from 89.0 in August. A year ago, the index had logged 95.4. The September reading matched economists' expectations. At the same time, the coincident economic index logged a reading of 100.8, up from 100.7 recorded in August. Moreover, the lagging index fell to 99.5 from 100.5 seen in August.

The Chinese stock market closed lower, led by financial and property stocks, reversing most of the gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 42.89 points or 2.44% to close at 1,717.72.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index slumped 7.08% to 13,790.04 and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 8.67% to 6,599.50.

The Australian stock market closed sharply lower, reversing yesterday gain of about 3%. The market started off lower, extended its losses as miners fell on renewed economic fears and banks lost ground after two of Australia's top four banks revealed a combined A$352 million exposure to two collapsed companies. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 186.9 points or 4.31% at 4,149.7 and the broader All Ordinaries index lost 180.8 points or 4.22% to close at 4,106.5.

On the economic front, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the unemployment rate in Australia held steady in October at 4.3% on year. However, the total number of employed persons in Australia soared by 34,300 to 10.77 million from the previous month. Full-time employment was down 9,200 to 7.69 million. Participation rate also remained steady at 65.2%. Unemployment increased by 7,000 to 487,000.

The New Zealand stock market closed sharply lower, reversing yesterday's gains. Wall Street's plunge overnight and weakness in the stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region prompted investors to sell stocks. The benchmark NZX 50 index closed down 46.0 points or 1.59% at 2,840.1 and the broader NZX All Capital index shed 39.3 points or 1.4% to 2,876.3.

On the economic front, a report form Statistics New Zealand showed that New Zealand's unemployment rate rose to 4.2% in the September quarter, its highest level in nearly five years, from 3.9% in the three months to June. Analysts expected unemployment rate to decline to 4.3%. Unemployment has risen in each of the last three quarters after hitting a record low of 3.4% in the December quarter of last year. According to the report, the number of people in jobs rose slightly to a record high of 2.17 million in the September quarter, while the number of unemployed people jumped 6.3% to 94,000.

The South Korean stock market tumbled, snapping a five-day winning streak. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI closed down 89.28 points or 7.56% at 1,092.22 after falling to as low as 1,081.79. Steep losses here prompted the Korea exchange to suspend program trading for five minutes earlier in the day after the main index futures prices dropped more than 5%. This marked the 19th trading suspension aimed at cooling markets this year.

On the economic front, South Korea's core inflation grew at a faster pace than other advanced nations as a sharp decline in its currency value increased overall import prices. According to a report compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, South Korea's core inflation, excluding volatile food and oil prices, jumped 4.1% in September from a year earlier. The figure compared with the average of 2.4% for OECD member countries.

The Bank of Korea said in a report that the money supply showed the weakest growth since December 2007, when it rose 11.5%. L, which is the broadest measure of money supply, moved up 12.1% year-on-year in September, down from 13.3% in August. The liquidity aggregate reached 2,233.8 trillion won in September.

In Philippines, the benchmark index PSEi toppled 3.22% or 64.59 points to 1,941.62 keeping in line with other regional markets following heavy losses on Wall Street overnight.

On the economic front, month-on-month growth rate of the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) dropped to -0.2% percent in August from 0.7 % in July. On an annual basis, the growth rate of the GRPI in NCR eased to 13.3 % in August from 14% in July.

Elsewhere, Singapore's Straits Times Index dropped 2.62% to 1,819.20 and Taiwan's Taiex shrank 5.71% to 4,694.12. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite dropped by 58.38 points or 4.27% to 1,307.90 while Malaysia’s Kula Lumpur Composite index went down by 19.29 points or 2.11% closing the day at 895.95.

In the other regional market, European stocks dropped sharply for a second session, as expected rate relief from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank was not enough to offset continued worries about corporate profits.

By region, the U.K. FTSE 100 fell 2.9% to 4