Asian Markets Hammered on Bear Stearns News

Updated from 6:19 a.m. EDT

Asian stocks fell sharply Monday and the dollar slid markedly vs. the yen following news that JPMorganJPM was buying troubled investment bank Bear StearnsBSC and that the Federal Reserve was taking further steps to bolster liquidity in the markets.

The news from the U.S. appeared to stoke fears in overseas markets that the credit crisis sparked by the subprime meltdown is only worsening.

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Japan's Nikkei stock index fell 3.7% on the day, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 5.2% and the Shanghai Composite lost 3.6% to close at 3820.05. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended down 2.3%, although it did recover off its lows of the day. South Korea's Kospi saw a 1.61% drop, the Singapore Straits Times index slid 1.40% and Taiwan's benchmark index closed down 1.91%. Elsewhere in the region, India's Sensex was trading down 5.2%, Thai shares were off 1.28% and Indonesian shares fell 4.64%. In Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur's composite index fell1.25% at 1179.87, while in the Philippines, shares finished down 3.88%.

Meanwhile, spot gold prices continued their record-breaking ascent, reaching $1032.35 an ounce, nearly $30 above Friday's close in New York.

Also in Asia Monday, the dollar traded below 96 yen for the first time in more than 12 years.

Know What You Own: Bear Stearns operates in the financial services industry, and some of the other stocks in its field include Citigroup C, Goldman Sachs GS, Morgan Stanley MS, Merrill Lynch MER, Bank of America BAC and Lehman Brothers LEH. These stocks were recently trading at ($18.14, -8.29%), ($142.49, -9.16%), ($35.89, -9.25%), ($37.55, -13.70%), ($34.25, -4.03%) and ($25.59, -34.92%) respectively. For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.