Asian Markets Update: Major Bourses Fall, Korea Tumbles
TOKYO -- Buying from individual investors helped slow the fall in Japan, but in Korea it was a different ballgame.
Along with foreign investors, individuals reportedly dumped Korean shares across the board Monday, which left the key
Kospi
index down 4.4% by the end of the day. Fears of a further fall in U.S. equities and the strength in the Korean
won
heightened anxieties over a slowdown in economic growth.
The benchmark
Nikkei 225
index closed down 153.56 to 19,556.46, while the
Topix
index, comprising shares listed on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange's
first section, also finished lower 12.06 to 1717.41. The
Jasdaq
small-cap index ended the day up 4.04, or 3.6%, to 117.07, while the Nikkei
over-the-counter
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shares rose 13.90 to 2436.48.
In addition to worrying about Wall Street, Tokyo investors started the day off with news that a supermarket chain had filed for corporate reorganization over the weekend.
Nagasakiya
, which saw shares drop 13, or 14.4%, to 77, said liabilities totaled around 380 billion yen ($3.5 billion) due to overexpansion during the go-go bubble era of the 1980s.
Retail shares withered in the aftermath, with
Daiei
(DAIEY)
slipping 6, or 1.4%, to 410, and
Seven-Eleven Japan
sliding 710, or 5.1%, to 13,090.
Banks that have supported Nagasakiya over the years also sagged.
Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank
, which loaned 107.6 billion yen to the firm, fell 71, or 7.8%, to 845.
Individual investors were active in the computer and tech sectors Monday, with sales in
Sony
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leading the way. Sony fell 710, or 2.5%, to 28,000, while
Sharp
(SHCAY)
slid 45, or 2.2%, to 2030. However, money flew into companies such as
Softbank
, which soared 21,000, or 14.2%, to 169,000 and
Hikari Tsushin
, up 17,000, or 8.0%, to 230,000.
The greenback was trading around 108.10 yen on position adjustments from foreign players.
Elsewhere in Asia, Korean equities fell across the board thanks to individual and foreign investor selling, with the Kospi index down 42.35, or 4.4%, to 910.87. The strength in the won, which was trading around 1125.50 against the greenback, had investors worried that exporters would lose much of the won's market share as products become more expensive for overseas consumers.
Volatility in the U.S. markets is also keeping investors at bay in Korea, especially for the electronic sector.
LG Electronics
fell 3600, or 10.6%, to 30,500;
Hyundai Electronics Industries
slid 1400, or 6.3%, to 20,900; and blue-chip
Korea Electric Power
(KEP)
also fell 1900, or 6.6%, to 27,000.
Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
index fell 191.34, or 1.1%, to 17,188.96 but excitement continued around a possible bidding war for
Cable & Wireless HKT
(HKT)
, which soared 4.750, or 21.9%, to 26,400.
One possible contender for Cable & Wireless, currently in merger talks with
Singapore Telecommunications
, is
Pacific Century
. Pacific Century shares have been suspended from trading since Friday after the firm said it would place 250 million shares in the market at $23.50, a 4.7% discount to the last close. Traders have assumed the placement is to raise money for Cable & Wireless.
China Star Enterprise
fell 0.110, or 6.0%, to 1.720, after confirming earlier reports that the firm entered a licensing agreement with
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
. China Star, which saw shares jump more than 20% on Friday, said it has granted Yahoo! worldwide rights and licenses to broadcast certain movies and television programs.
Meanwhile, sources told
Dow Jones
that the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
will likely approve the public offering of
Petro China
, a unit of
China National Petroleum
, on the
New York Stock Exchange
later today.
