London (CNNfn) - Asian markets slumped on Friday amid concern that technology companies face slowing earnings, after high-profile firms in Europe and the U.S. indicated future profits would fall short of analysts' expectations.
Japan's Nikkei average of 225 stocks plunged 343.44 points, or 2.1 percent, to close at 15,838.57, led by consumer electronics titan Sony and the country's No.1 computer maker Fujitsu. The index closed below 16,000 for the first time since May 1999, and was down 5.8 percent from a week earlier.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng dropped 266.16 points, or 1.5 percent, to end the week at 17,183.93, led by telecom and bank stocks. The index fell 4.1 percent from the previous Friday's close.
The Straits Times index in Singapore shed 18 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,039.62, down 4 percent on the week, led lower Friday by banking heavyweight DBS Group and chipmaker Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing. DBS fell 3.2 percent and Chartered declined 2.5 percent.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 3.2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 3,251.8. Natural resources producer Broken Hill fell more than 1 percent even after posting record full-year profit of A$2.03 billion ($1.2 billion).
A tech sell-off in Europe and the U.S. Thursday followed a warning by Finnish mobile-phone maker Nokia that profit in the current fiscal quarter would be lower than in the April-to-June period. U.S.-based telecom operator WorldCom Inc. compounded investors' concerns by hinting it expected earnings for this year and next to be at the low end of the range of analysts' current forecasts.
The U.S. Nasdaq composite index fell 145.47, or more than 3 percent, to 3,842.25 on Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 69.65 to 10,586.113.
In Asia, the market that suffered the biggest reaction to those warnings was South Korea, where the tech-heavy Kospi index plunged 35.03 points, or more tan 4.8 percent, to 692.65. Samsung Electronics fell 6.1 percent and SK Telecom dived 8.1 percent.
In Tokyo, consumer electronics maker Matsushita Electrical declined 1.7 percent, rival Sony fell 1.7 percent and Fujitsu dropped 4.4percent.
Investors dump telecom stocks
Telecom stocks were hardest hit after Nokia said customers were delaying buying new mobile phones. NTT DoCoMo, Japan's dominant mobile-phone company, lost 3.1 percent, even though the previous day it had said the number of users of its popular "i-mode" mobile Internet access service might reach 17 million by the year-end, well above an estimate of 10 million set earlier this year.
Japan Telecom dropped 2.8 percent, DDI slipped 1.7 percent and NTT Data, the computer services and systems supplier of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, declined 2 percent.
Specialty chipmaker Rohm, which counts Nokia as its biggest customer, plunged 4.9 percent. Tokyo Electron, a maker of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, fell 2.8 percent.
Internet investor Softbank slumped 10.8 percent. The company has invested heavily in Internet firms listed on Nasdaq.
Oracle Corp Japan, a unit of U.S. database software firm Oracle Corp (ORCL: Research, Estimates), plunged 10.4 percent.
In Hong Kong, Nokia's warning depressed China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile phone operator, which fell 2.3 percent, while telecom-to-property conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa fell 1.3 percent and its parent company, Cheung Kong, dropped 0.8 percent. CCT Telecom dropped 2.2 percent and Internet firm Pacific Century CyberWorks fell 3.8 percent.
Banking stocks were also weaker, HSBC Holding falling 1.4 percent, Bank of East Asia down 2.2 percent and Hang Seng Bank losing 2.1 percent.
Among the region's smaller markets, Malaysia's KLSE dropped 1.1 percent, Manila's PHS Composite fell almost 0.8 percent and the SET composite index in Bangkok slipped 0.9 percent.
Heading in the opposite direction, Taiwan's Weighted index rose 2 percent and Jakarta's JSX was little changed at 498.8.
In the currency markets, the yen strengthened slightly to ¥108.97 per U.S. dollar, from ¥109.12 in late trade in New York on Thursday. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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