Several Asian indexes tumbled 3% or more Monday on worries about global credit markets and a weakening U.S. dollar after J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to buy Bear Stearns Cos. for $2 a share and the Federal Reserve cut the discount rate by a quarter percentage point.
Japan's benchmark 225 index sank 3.7 percent to close at 11,787.51 points, its lowest in more than 2 1/2 years. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 5.2 percent to finish at 21,084.61.
Shares of Mitsubishi UFJ dropped 4.8% and Citigroup Inc. tumbled 8.1% in Tokyo
Exporters also lost heavily on the yen's hefty gains against the dollar. In Japan, shares of Canon sank 4.3%, while Nintendo Co. gave up 5.8%.
China's Shanghai Composite declined 3.6% to 3,820.05, taking its losses into the fourth straight session, Taiwan's Weighted index dropped 1.9% to 8,005.46 and Singapore's Straits Times index lost 1.6% at 2,792.75.
Elsewhere:
India's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, plummeted 5.5% to 14,901.65 by late afternoon, sliding below 15,000 for the first time since August.
South Korea's Kospi lost 1.6% to 1,574.44.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 2.3% to 5,087.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index declined 2% to 3,429.43.
with files from other wire services
