Asian markets are trading sharply lower following Wall Street's overnight fall. US stocks dipped yesterday as investors recognized that few industries are safe from the consumer spending slump.
South Korean share prices opened 2.2 per cent lower. The Kospi index started trading down 24.85 points at 1,103.88.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading down 2 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei stock index fell 1.3 per cent at the opening today, after shares tumbled on Wall Street in the wake of a string of bad corporate news in the United States, dealers said.
The benchmark index lost 114.39 points to 8,694.91 in the first minute of trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1.99 per cent yesterday on fears of a collapse of General Motors and a series of troubling corporate news amid the global credit crisis.