More news about the stock markets: (It's a brand new day in Tokyo!)
Asian stocks plunge on fears of global recession
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 4:13 AM EDT
The Associated Press
By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) — A meltdown in confidence strangled Asian stock markets Wednesday on accelerating fears that the widening financial crisis could spawn a global recession.
After a miserable day on Wall Street when the Dow Jones industrials lost more than 500 points, investors from Tokyo to Mumbai, Seoul to Sydney dumped shares in a broad regional sell-off.
Anxious investors in Tokyo sent shares into a free-fall, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunging 9.4 percent — its biggest drop in 21 years — to 9,203.32, a five-year low.
"Selling on Wall Street triggered further selling in Tokyo. It's like a chain reaction," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. Ltd. "No one knows the bottom of the ongoing financial crisis, and investors were really spooked by growing uncertainty over the global credit crisis."
Accelerating the pessimism were doubts that finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations would unveil any effective measures at their meeting in Washington Friday.
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