LONDON (CNNfn) - Asian markets plunged Thursday, led by technology and telecom stocks, after another bout of profit warnings and dizzying falls in share prices on the U.S. Nasdaq market.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 reeled 491.22 points, or 3.5 percent, to close at a 23-month low of 13,423.21, with mobile-phone operator NTT DoCoMo and optical fiber maker Furukawa Electric among the biggest decliners.
 "This is too much, it's overdone. But then that's what everyone's been saying for the past month," said Hidenori Kawasaki, an equities trading manager at Kokusai Securities. "The only thing we can do at the moment is wait for Nasdaq's volatility to subside."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 271.4 points, or 1.8 percent, to end the session at 14,659.32, led by index heavyweight China Mobile and China's biggest personal computer maker Legend Holdings.
The Straits Times index in Singapore dipped 1.6 percent to 1,898.84. Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing plunged more than 7 percent after issuing a profit warning.
 In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 57.2 points, or 1.8 percent, to 3,133.7. Media conglomerate News Corp, the index's biggest stock by capitalization, shed 7.2 percent and Cable & Wireless Optus, Australia's second-largest phone operator, declined 5 percent amid concerns it may not be able to sell assets as planned.
In volatile U.S. trading on Wednesday, the tech-laden Nasdaq composite index plunged 7.1 percent to 2,332.78, while the Dow Jones fell 265.44 points, or 2.5 percent, to 10,318.93.
In the currency market, the yen firmed slightly to ¥112.43 per U.S. dollar from ¥112.73 in late U.S. trading on Wednesday.
Tokyo stocks stumble
On the Tokyo exchange, chip-related stocks headed down sharply on concerns about a slowdown in global demand. Specialty chip manufacturer Rohm fell 11.9 percent and Advantest, a maker of chip testing equipment, dropped 12.3 percent
Bellwether Japanese electronics firms continue their steady decline. Sony fell 4 percent, Fujitsu, Japan's biggest personal computer maker, fell 4.3 percent and Toshiba declined 5.4 percent. Furukawa Electric, the country's leading maker of optical fiber, plunged 12.8 percent.
Softbank, which is heavily invested in stocks on the Nasdaq, dropped 7.8 percent.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone fell 4.4 percent after the Fair Trade Commission warned one of its regional units to stop hampering other companies' efforts to provide high-speed Internet access through digital subscriber lines.
Mobile-phone operator NTT DoCoMo, which is 67 percent owned by NTT, slumped 6.7 percent amid concerns its dominance in the domestic mobile-phone market could be threatened by the $2.2 billion purchase of a 15 percent stake in Japan Telecom by Vodafone Group, the world's biggest mobile operator. Japan Telecom rose 2.2 percent.
 In Hong Kong, computer maker Legend Holdings plunged 7.6 percent after leading U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch cut its recommendations on the world's biggest computer maker, International Business Machines (IBM: Research, Estimates), and Web infrastructure company Cisco Systems (CSCO: Research, Estimates), citing slowing computer sales.
China Mobile, China's biggest mobile-phone operator, fell 5.9 percent after a profit warning from long-distance telephone operator AT&T (T: Research, Estimates) dealt another blow to an already shaky telecom sector. China Unicom, the second-biggest Chinese cell-phone operator, fell 2 percent.
Among banks and property stocks, HSBC Holdings fell 1.3 percent and the territory's biggest property company Cheung Kong (Holdings) lost 1 percent, while the No. 2 property company Sun Hung Kai Properties rose almost 3 percent.
In other markets, Seoul's KOSPI index fell 0.4 percent, while the tech-laden Kosdaq dropped 4.9 percent.
The KLSE composite in Kuala Lumpur slipped 0.6 percent, the BSE Sensex in Mumbai declined 1.5 percent, and the PHS composite slipped 1.5 percent in Manila, while Bangkok's SET index and Jakarta's JSX both ended little changed from Wednesday's close.
--from staff and wire reports 
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