Asian markets were dealt crushing blows Friday as panic-stricken investors rushed to dump stocks across the board in a scramble to raise cash and reduce risk.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index plunged 881.06 points, or 9.6%, to close at 8,276.43 while the Hang Seng Index plunged 1,146.37 points or 7.19% to 14796.87.
New City Residence Investment Corp. became Japan's first failure of a listed real-estate investment trust after the company filed for court protection from creditors with $1.1 billion in debt. The company's stock was untraded due to a glut of sell orders. Unlisted insurer Yamato Life Insurance Co said that it failed with 269.5 billion yen in debt due to unexpected losses on securities holdings from the market turmoil. The news sent insurance and real estate stocks plunging.
In the insurance sector, Sompo Japan Insurance fell nearly 12% following Yomato Life Insurance's collapse, while T&D Holdings slid 11%. Among real estate stocks, Mitsubishi Estate shed 8%.
Among tech stocks, Kyocera shed 13.3%, while in the retail sector, Fast Retailing slid 10.5%. Japan's biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ shed 8.5% after Moody's Investor Service said it may cut Morgan Stanley's credit rating. The Japanese lender is in talks to buy a stake in Morgan Stanley. Meanwhile, Mizuho Financial fell 11.8%.
Exporters were hit by a stronger yen. Canon slid 6.9% and Sony dropped 5.4%.
Elsewhere:
China's Shanghai Composite Index closed down 74.01 points or 3.57% at 2000.57.
Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 154.38 points or 7.34% to 1,948.33.
India's BSE 30 Index tumbled 800.51 points or 7.07% to 10,527.85.
Malaysia's KLSE Composite Index closed down 34.88 points or 3.60% at 934.01.
New Zealand's NZX 50 Index declined 139.08 points or 4.72% to settle at 2,805.31.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 8.3% to 3,960.70.
with files from other wire services
