Business | Markets
Asian stock market tumbles as dollar sinks even lower
The Asian stock market nosedived on Monday to its lowest since August 2007, following the dollar's plunge to a 13-year low against the yen.
- Agencies
- Published: 11:45 March 17, 2008
Hong Kong: The Asian stock market nosedived on Monday to its lowest since August 2007, following the dollar's plunge to a 13-year low against the yen.
The sale of US Bank Bear Stearns coupled with the Federal Reserve's reduction of a lending rate signalled towards a growing global credit crisis.
The downward spiral caused other commodities including gold and crude saw a sharp rise. Other safer asses also rose, including Japanese government bonds.
Japan's Nikkei average dropped 3.7 percent, hitting earlier its lowest since August 2005, with exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp sinking along with the U.S. dollar.
Elsewhere in Asia, shares in Hong Kong and India fell around 4 percent each, while Australian stocks fell 2.3 percent.
Stocks in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore fell a little under 2 percent.
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Financial companies were badly hit, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and South Korea's biggest lender Kookmin Bank.
Government leaders in Asia have stated that they are monitoring financial developments following the shockwaves, in hopes of avoiding an even greater crisis.
This is the latest in a string of setbacks faced by the Asian market in 2008, as subprime and credit-related writedowns in the global financial sector are being seen at a point where the US economy lies on the brink of a recession.
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