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Asia slips on Dow slide
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August 27, 1999: 5:35 a.m. ET
Nikkei racks up fourth straight loss; Seoul jumps 9 percent for the week
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Most Asian markets suffered modest losses Friday as investors reacted to the overnight decline on Wall Street. Blue chips in Tokyo ended in the red after defying the downward trend for much of the session.
The Nikkei 225 slipped 66.92 points or 0.38 percent to 17,599.37. A stronger dollar supported shares for much of the session as the U.S. currency neared 112 yen level. The buying petered out late in the day and the dollar slipped back - in early European trade it stood around the 111.40 mark.
It was the fourth consecutive losing session for Japanese blue chips. The index fell 2.8 percent or almost 500 points for the week.
Export-related blue chips, which had been the main beneficiaries of the rally earlier in the session, shed most of their gains. Toyota Motor remained one of the biggest gainers. It jumped 2 percent after rallying as much as 6 percent at one point.
Wall Street Thursday was hit by profit taking after its blue chips had reached two closing records this week. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1.1 percent, or 127 points, to 11,198.45. The tech-heavy Nasdaq suffered a similar percentage loss.
In Hong Kong the Hang Seng slumped 225 points or 1.7 percent to close at 13,383.13. Sentiment was further undermined by an expected hike in interest rates after the close Friday following the quarter-point rise in U.S. rates earlier in the week. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the U.S. currency, so the cost of borrowing closely tracks U.S. interest rates.
The Hang Seng fell 1.4 percent for the week, a loss of 183 points.
South Korea's Kospi closed slightly higher at 960.28, ending a good week in which Seoul blue chips jumped 9.3 percent.
Sydney's All Ordinaries also tracked the Dow's slide, closing just short of 1 percent lower at 3,020.2. Manila's Composite dipped 0.7 percent to end at 2,221.24.
Taiwan's Weighted index also closed in the red, down 0.5 percent at 8,053.97.
The Straits Times index in Singapore recovered some of its earlier losses but still finished in the red, down 8 points at 2,154.63. The market gained 3.3. percent over the week.
The JSX index in Indonesia shed 1.5 percent to 572.67. Thailand's Set index reversed course to trade just inside the minus column at 455.45.
Only Kuala Lumpur blue chips defied the trend to close 3 points higher at 764.79, a rise of 0.4 percent.
-- from staff and wire reports
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