Asian markets suffered heavy losses Friday on concerns about the state of the U.S. economy and the global credit markets.
Japan's Nikkei fell 432 points, or 3.3%, to 12,782, just 200 points north of the 52-week low reached in late January. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fared worse, dropping 841 points, or 3.6%, to 22,501.
In Hong Kong, market turnover soared on the heavy selling, up 18.5% from Thursday, at HK$83 billion ($10.6 billion). Most heavily sold were telecom stocks and financials, although PetroChina was heavily unloaded by investors, despite the price of oil holding up in Singapore trading.
In Japan, the yen was sharply higher, sending Japanese exporters spiraling. The yen was gaining to 102.00 vs. the dollar in Asian trading, more than 1 yen above what the currency was selling for in New York trading Thursday. Sony plummeted 5.1%, to 4610 yen, while Nintendo dropped 4.9%, to 52,600 yen. Car maker Honda held up little better, falling 4.2%, to 2990 yen.
Elsewhere:
On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite finished 1.4% lower at 4,300.52.
South Korea's Kospi lost 2% at 1,663.97.
Taiwan's Weighted index gave up 1.5% at 8,531.38.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index dropped 1.3% to 3,558.26.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index sank 3.2% to 5,264.
with files from other wire services
