Asian Shares Sink As Credit Fears Rise

Source : The Straits Times, Aug 16, 2007

Asian shares continued to trade in negative territory on Thursday after Wall Street tumbled on renewed investor concerns over global credit markets.

SINGAPORE
Singapore share prices dived 4.6 per cent at the midday break on Thursday on panic selling from concerns over the troubled US subprime mortgage market, dealers said.

The main Straits Times Index plunged 150.38 points to 3,122.87 from Wednesday's close of 3273.25.

'The downtrend is still there,' said DBS Vickers Securities retail market strategist Yeo Kee Yan.

TOKYO
Japanese stocks plunged by 3.7 per cent in early afternoon trade on Thursday, tumbling below the key 16,000 points level for the first time since Nov as a wave of selling hit Asian markets, dealers said.

As of 11.32 am Singapore time, the Nikkei share average lost 552.67 points, or 3.35 per cent to 15,922.94, while the Topix declined 3.66 per cent to 1,535.74.

HONG KONG
Hong Kong share prices closed the Thursday morning session 3.7 per cent lower amid investor fears over the extent of the fallout from the US credit market crisis, dealers said.

The Hang Seng Index closed the morning session down 790.6 points at 20,585.14.

CHINA
China's main stock index tumbled more than 2 per cent on Thursday, as institutions took profits in large-caps and some fund managers said the market could be starting a short-term pull-back.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell as much as 2.16 per cent before ending the morning down 2.04 per cent at 4,770.440 points, with losing Shanghai stocks outnumbering gainers by 524 to 353.

Turnover in Shanghai A shares shrank to a modest 66.4 billion yuan (S$13.4 billion) from Wednesday morning's 70.8 billion yuan.

SEOUL
South Korea's stock market plunged 6.35 per cent in morning trade on Thursday on panic selling sparked by steep overnight losses on Wall Street, dealers said.

The KOSPI index had plummeted 115.52 points to 1,702.37 by midday.

KUALA LUMPUR
At 12.30 pm, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was down by 46.24 points to 1,205.58. -- REUTERS, AFP