Markets from New Zealand to India suffered a sell-off Friday, with as many as five benchmark indexes setting 52-week lows, as investors dumped stocks on concerns about weakening growth prospects and uncertainty over the global economy.
In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.75 percent at 12,212.23 while the Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 3.1 percent to 19,752.65.
On the economic front, the Ministry of Finance said that Japanese capital investment spending, or capex, was down an annual 6.5% in the second quarter of 2008. This marked the fifth consecutive quarter of decline. Capex was down an annual 4.9% in the first quarter of the year.
The ministry also said that Japan's foreign reserves fell for the first time in three months in August. The country's foreign reserves in August stood at 997 billion yen, down 7.92 billion yen from 1.00 trillion yen in the previous month.
In the financial sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropped 2.3%, Mizuho Financial Group slumped 6.4% and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group plunged 4.7%. Top brokerage Nomura Holdings fell 3.1% and Daiwa Securities Group lost 3.3%.
Exporters fell on the back of a stronger yen. Automaker Honda Motor declined 1.1%, Toyota Motor fell 2.5%, office equipment maker Canon lost 2.9%, and machinery maker Komatsu plummeted 4.4%. Electronics giant Sony plummeted 4.2% after the company announced a voluntary recall of 438,000 Vaio portable computers citing a potential hazard that could cause them to overheat.
In the tech space, Advantest slid 2.5%, Kyocera declined 2.6%, Fanuc lost 2.8% and Matsushita Electrical Industrial shed 3.1%.
Inpex Holdings pared early losses to finish 2.1% higher, while Nippon Oil shed 1.0% and Nippon Mining Holdings plunged 3.3%. Trading house Mitsubishi Corp closed flat, Mitsui & Co slipped 0.2%, and Itochu gave away 1.7%.
The Chinese market closed sharply lower, after it rebounded Thursday ending a three-day losing streak. News of a large IPO from China Merchants Securities and a new rule on share sales that would shorten the lock-up period for holders of pre-IPO shares also dented sentiment. Property developers and non-ferrous metal stocks led the decliners.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 74.97 points or 3.29% at 2,202.45, a fresh 20 month-closing low. The index finished the week down 8.13%, the sixth successive week of losses.
China Merchants Securities said that it is planning to issue 358.55 million A-shares, representing 10% of enlarged capital, in a domestic initial public offering. Meanwhile, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets revised the rules governing investors holding pre-IPO stakes in companies, cutting the holding period to 12 months from 36 months.
Among property developers, Poly Real Estate Group plunged 6.6%. The company said that it sold 1.65 million square meters of property in the first eight months, up 25.26% on year, generating revenues of 13.01 billion yuan. China Vanke fell 3.8%. Nonferrous metals stocks closed lower, with Zijin Mining plummeting 6.5%, Jiangxi Copper tumbling 6.0% and Western Mining losing 5.3%.
In the financial sector, Bank of Beijing dropped 5.4% and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank shed 5.0%. China Merchants Bank declined 2.3%. The bank said that it has received an approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to buy 10% of Taizhou City Commercial Bank.
Index heavyweight PetroChina shed 4.2%, while China Petroleum & Chemical or Sinopec gave away 1.6%.
Elsewhere:
Taiwan's Taiex closed down 1.6% at 6,307.
Singapore's STI fell 2.0% to 2,574.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index shed 2.5% to 2,022.
Malaysia's KLCI closed down 1.3% at 1,070.
India's Senex fell 2.8% to finish at 14,483.
South Korea's Kospi fell 1.6% to 1,404.38.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index shed 0.4% to 3,336.18.
The resource stocks-laden Australian market was also hurt by a continued decline in crude-oil and metal prices, with the S&P/ASX 200 index dropping 2.1% to 4,877.10.
with files from other wire services
