Asian markets tumble on heels of Wall Street sell-off

TOKYO (AP) -- Stock markets across Asia posted sharp losses in early trading Friday on the heels of a steep sell-off on Wall Street.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 974.12 points, or 10.64 percent, to close the morning session at 8,183.37. At one point in the frantic morning trading, the index shed 11.4 percent.






"We are seeing a meltdown in the world stock market due to growing fears over a global recession," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. Ltd.

The sell-off in Asian markets comes after the Dow Jones industrial average Thursday dropped a staggering 679 points, or 7.3 percent, to close below the 9,000-line for the first time in five years.

In Seoul, South Korea, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 7.1 percent, or 92.05 points, to 1,202.84 after the first hour of trading. At one point the Kospi fell as much as 9 percent.

Hong Kong's blue chip Hang Seng index was down 7.6 percent, or 1,211.48 points, at 14,731.76 minutes after trading started. The index rose 3.3 percent on Thursday.

In active trading at midday, the Australian benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 256.8 points, or 5.94 per cent, to 4064.1, after earlier falling 7.1 percent.

Lucinda Chan, associate director of Macquarie Equities in Sydney, called the market moves "ghastly."

"It is a very different and very unprecedented climate at the moment," she said. "Growth is going to be a major concern in this market and that is why the Australian market is getting a very hard pinch, because we are a commodity export nation."

New Zealand's benchmark NZX-50 index fell 3.52 percent in its first four hours of trading Friday, hitting its lowest level since November 2004 as the market notched up its sixth successive day of losses.




Meanwhile, the president of the Indonesian stock exchange said trading will be suspended indefinitely "to prevent deeper panic," after another huge drop on Wall Street.

Indonesian authorities had planned to reopen the market Friday morning after a suspension was imposed Wednesday.