Bears take a grip amid tech gloom

ASIAN stocks ended the week in the same dismal form in which they started after Wall Street's overnight tumble took the Standard & Poor's 500 index down to five-year lows.

A spate of poor earnings results from US technology leaders, plus renewed evidence that the consumer spending that has propped up the world's biggest economy is weakening, convinced investors in the region that the bear market was here to stay, and cash was king again.

Tokyo stocks plunged more than 3% in early trades, and were 4% below last Friday's close as the shake-out erased the Nikkei's midweek rally. After an early plunge to 10,174.68, a fragile recovery pared the loss slightly, but at 10,202.36, down 295.90, the Nikkei is still looking set to test its late February lows.

Tech stocks bore the brunt of the selling, after a bearish outlook on future profits from Microsoft and a warning of first-quarter losses from Sun Microsystems clouded any hopes of a recovery in personal computer and system sales. With the dollar back on the skids against the yen, stocks in Japanese consumer electronics groups were tumbling again on the growing threat to their sales and repatriated earnings. Shares in Sony Corporation, which relies on the US consumer for much of its income from consumer electronics and laptops crashed almost 4%, while NEC, Japan's largest computer maker also dived almost 4%.

The regional gloom over profit prospects was deepened by a downbeat forecast from South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest chipmaker. Seoul shares were slashed more than 3% as the Kospi lost 25.98 to 747.87, driven heavily down by a fall of more than 4% in Samsung's stock.

Although the group reported first-quarter income was up 119%, the market was shaken by a warning that the second quarter was showing a rapid deterioration in demand, as the strength of the Korean won cut into sales.

Taiwan's market scored its fifth consecutive day of falls as tech stocks were battered by the declining prospects of its major chipmakers. As Taiwan Semiconductor and United Microelectronics crumbled by about 5%, the Weighted Average slumped 104.33 to 5137.78.

Hong Kong stocks were back to their low point of the year as the Hang Seng lost 127.1 to 10,325.5. Wall Street's overnight weakness kept investors away from the market as they awaited the outcome of the major Bank of China (Hong Kong) issue.

A reported modest oversubscription of 15 times for the retail tranche suggests that the final offer price will be in the middle of the range set by the company's advisers, said analysts.

Poor earnings reports from local computer-related companies sent Singapore's Straits Times index down 20.4 to 1559.5.

Sydney caught a cold from a 31% fall in the shares of US healthcare group Baxter as its bad earnings figures hit stocks of similar groups in Australia. But the All Ordinaries index staged a late recovery, climbing 9.7 to 3109.2.

In Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur Composite slipped 2.82 points to 731.05, while Thailand's SET index was barely changed, down 0.37 to 397.54, and the Jakarta Composite lost 2.83 to 485.39.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed on the site.