Stocks crash on new US scandal

ASIAN stocks crashed as the World Cup vanished from the screens to be replaced by WorldCom. Prices in regional markets plummeted as yet another accounting scandal rocked confidence in the reality of US Inc's earnings, and investors anticipated a bloodbath when Wall Street opens.

Although WorldCom's admission that its chief financial officer had been fired for covering up $4bn (£2.7bn) in expenditure came after hours in New York, the Nasdaq futures in Asia slumped more than 2% today. Even this was minor damage compared with the impact on some of the region's stock markets.

Tokyo stocks crashed 4% on panic selling which took the Nikkei 225 below 10,150 for the first time since late February. It closed off 422.11 at 10,074.56.

Even harder hit were South Korean stocks, one of the region's top performers this year, as the Kospi slumped more than 6%. Taiwan's technology-heavy Weighted Average lost more than 3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index escaped with a 1.7% loss while Australia's stocks dropped 1.5% to five-month lows.

Asia's woes were compounded by further signs of waning confidence among US consumers, which suggest the economic recovery will be even further postponed. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to 106.4 in June, against 110.3 in May, blighting the hopes of growing sales to the US by Asia's big consumer electronics companies and carmakers.

Few analysts in the region were holding out much hope for any help from the Federal Reserve Board, which meets today and is now expected to leave interest rates unchanged. Japan's consumers are continuing their lengthy strike, as retail sales in May shrank 3% year on year. Asian agony was compounded by third-quarter losses from US chip giant Micron, which underlined the weakening outlook for the sector. Shares of Japan's major semiconductor producers slid by as much as 5%.

The carnage in Korea was even worse as leading global memory chip-maker Samsung Electronics dived 6%, and local rival Hynix Semiconductor plummeted 11%, taking the Kospi down 46.62 points to 709.30, its biggest loss since December.

Similar amounts of red ink were being splashed around in Taiwan, where falling tech stocks shoved the Weighted Average down 192.33 to 5123.71. Singapore's chip-makers led a rout that saw the Straits Times index dive 38.24 to 1527.56.

The slumping US consumer confidence index, and the threat of a Wall street crash battered stocks of Hong Kong's exporters and local blue- chips, and the Hang Seng index dived 253.50 to 10,355.48. HSBC Holdings was among the main casualties as it lost HK$1.50 to HK$87.25.

Sydney stocks echoed Wall Street's overnight 1.6% decline, with News Corp tumbling 4%, further weakened by concerns over its involvement in the US Gemstar TV guide. The All Ordinaries index fell 53.2 points to 3174.4. Malaysian falls were limited by the anticipation of an orderly handover of power by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and the Kuala Lumpur Composite index dipped just 2.02 points to 715.19. Thailand's SET index slid 6.97 points to 391.56 and the Jakarta Composite lost 4.24 to 512.72.

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.