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Asia suffers heavy losses
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May 22, 2000: 6:14 a.m. ET
Tokyo slides 3% as investors dump tech, telecom shares; Seoul down 5%
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Asia's major stock markets crumbled on Monday under the weight of another sharp selloff in U.S. technology stocks as investors turned their backs on equities amid concerns over further tightening of global monetary policy.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed down 472 points, or 2.8 percent, at 16,386.01 as a slide in telecom and electronics shares dragged the benchmark index to a 12-month low at one point, before recovering slightly in late afternoon trade.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng ended down 338 points, or 2.3 percent, at 14,140.73 as its own telecom components knocked the index back to a six-month low of 13,981.
Singapore's Straits Times was even worse hit, closing down 3.14 percent at 1,929.88, some 7 points above a low for the year, set earlier in the session. In Seoul, the Kospi index closed down 5.35 percent at 691.06, the worst performance in the region.
The trigger for Asia's performance was a 4.1 percent slide in the Nasdaq composite in the U.S. Friday, alongside a 1.5 percent fall in the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average.
 The Nasdaq's fall quickly fed through to Asia, with Taiwan's key market index losing more than 3 percent in Saturday trade before the region's other markets followed suit on Monday.
In the currency markets, the dollar was steady against the yen at around ¥107, little changed from its value on Friday in New York. The euro was also flat against the U.S. currency at around $0.8970.
NTT group weighs on Nikkei
In Tokyo, telecom heavyweight Nippon Telegraph & Telephone and its mobile-phone arm NTT DoCoMo both closed down 7 percent, while bellwether technology stock Sony lost 5.1 percent and Hitachi dropped 3 percent.
 Nomura Securities slid 7.3 percent as brokerages were pinned back by concern that the market's volatility will hit earnings. Nikko Securities closed down 8.4 percent.
Automakers had a mixed session, with Honda Motor losing 3 percent after its gloomy profit outlook last week, while Nissan Motor, Japan's third-largest, jumped 6.7 percent after it published a more upbeat assessment of future earnings.
In Hong Kong, telecom shares suffered the sharpest selloff, with China Telecom ending down 4.1 percent while Hutchison Whampoa dipped 3.4 percent and Cable & Wireless HKT lost 2.7 percent.
 Banks were also weak after last week's rise in lending rates. HSBC Holdings lost 0.6 percent, halving its earlier losses, and Hang Seng Bank, HSBC's main Hong Kong unit, slipped 2.2 percent.
Sydney's S&P/ASX200 index ended down 1.2 percent at 3,002.30 while Taiwan's TAIEX index closed down 0.14 percent at 8,807.57.
Manila's PHS Composite slumped 4.5 percent to close at 1,412.09, hitting a 19-month low as fears of higher interest rates were joined by escalating political violence.
The Set 50 in Bangkok was closed down 2.9 percent at 333.666, a low for the year. Monday's decline took the index's slide since Jan. 1 to 30 percent.
Kuala Lumpur's KLSE Composite closed down 1.5 percent, and the JSX index in Jakarta slipped 2.16 percent. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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