Japan GDP admission hits Nikkei

PLUNGING bank stocks and the long-awaited admission by the

The government admitted that GDP this year would fall 0.9% rather than climb 1.7% as it had forecast. The Nikkei 225 dropped 216.08 points to 10,215.71.

Ministers said the biggest fall in GDP since 1980 reflected slowing demand for exports and stagnant domestic consumption. Bank stocks were massacred as falling business confidence added to concerns about bad-debt problems.

Mizuho Holdings, the country's biggest lender, fell more than 6% on reports that its bad-debt mountain was now about $15bn (£10.3bn). Smaller banks were dumped on default fears.

In Hong Kong, the European Central Bank's interest rate cut triggered big buying of property companies expected to benefit from the low interest rate regime. China-linked stocks added to the rally ahead of this weekend's admission of the mainland to the World Trade Organisation. The Hang Seng index broke through 10,700, but profit-taking pared the gain to 98.63 points at 10,637.25. Major property stocks gained up to 4%, but HSBC Holdings was static at HK$90 after putting on 7% so far this month.

South Korean stocks continued their inexorable climb as big semiconductor manufacturers rose on a stream of upbeat sales forecasts. Memory chip giant Samsung added almost 3% while Hynix Semi bounded up 13% after creditors rolled over $400m owed by its US offshoot. The Kospi responded with a gain of 5.2 points to 578.24.

Taiwan investors were not buying the optimism about chips, and preferred to take Nasdaq's lacklustre performance as a sell signal. Technology stocks led the Weighted Average down by 11.25 points to 4123.78.

Singapore's major media provider, Singapore Press Holdings, was making news on the stock market by restructuring its television and internet interests, cutting wages and laying off staff. This proved good for the shares, which bounded up 5% ahead of the widely leaked move. The Straits Times index rose by 26.28 points to 1359.19 as banks and other blue-chips were snapped up by bargain hunters.

Australian stocks continued to pull back from their big dive earlier this week, and the All Ordinaries gained 16.1 points at 3221.4, powered mainly by a big rebound in News Corporation stocks. The media giant jumped 3% following an upgrade in its credit rating from negative to stable by Standard & Poor's, but trade was subdued ahead of tomorrow's general election.

Predictions that the ECB rate cut would help to boost the world economy and commodity prices sent resource stocks mildly ahead, and BHP Billiton was up 0.8%.

Forecasts that Malaysia's market was about to break through 600 were borne out by the thinnest of margins, as the Kuala Lumpur Composite rose 2.29 points to

600.86.

Indonesian stocks fell ahead of some key blue-chip results. The Jakarta Composite slipped 2.04 points to 379.8, while Thailand's SET index edged up 1.2 points to 269.54.

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