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Tokyo slumps 285 points
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August 4, 1999: 6:01 a.m. ET
Nikkei slides 1.6% on tech sell-off; banks boost Hong Kong
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Hong Kong bucked the negative trend in Asia, buoyed by banking stocks as Tokyo's blue chips fell almost 300 points, dragged down by a sell-off in technology stocks.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.6 percent to close at 17,685.38, a fall of 285 points, as technology-related stocks tumbled. Worries about a strong yen also played a part, as traders started to doubt the United States would intervene to support the dollar.
Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average managed to post slight gains, but the Nasdaq Composite index suffered from an Internet-stock led sell-off, which left it almost 1.4 percent lower.
Tokyo's technology stocks suffered a similar fate but did recover some of their earlier losses. At one point the Nikkei was down as much as 2 percent. Japan's biggest Internet-play, Softbank, plunged almost 9 percent to close at 28,050 yen.
Matsushita slumped 5.6 percent to 2,615 yen, while Pioneer fell just under 5 percent to end at 2,100 yen. Chipmaker Fujitsu fell almost 4.8 percent to 3,400 yen and Sony Corp. was down 2.7 percent at 14,040.
Japan's dominant telecom operator NTT took a hit after the government said it planned to sell a fifth tranche of shares in the company in November. Concerns of oversupply sent the shares tumbling almost 5 percent to 1.34 million yen.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index held onto most of its earlier gains to close 117 points higher at 13,591.02, a rise of 0.87 percent, propped up by strong banking stocks.
Heavyweight HSBC closed 2.6 percent higher at HK$97, while its affiliate Hang Seng Bank rose over 1.4 percent to end at HK$88.25.
Analysts told Reuters that relatively low bad-loan provisions revealed in recent bank results suggested that Hong Kong could be over the worst of the economic crisis.
The smaller banks also performed well, lifting the finance index by almost 2.4 percent.
Other markets were generally weak. The Straits Times index in Singapore just managed to stay in the black as it closed less than 1 point higher at 2,144, while the Kospi in South Korea closed just 2 points higher at 975.45.
In Manila, the Composite index ended 0.7 percent higher at 2,372.05.
The All Ordinaries index in Sydney fell 26 points, or 0.9 percent, to close at 3,005.7, hit by strong selling in the futures market as investors remained jittery about the direction of U.S. interest rates.
Taiwan's Weighted index fell almost 1 percent to 7,110.80 as tension with mainland China continued.
But the largest decliner in the region was Kuala Lumpur, where blue chips slumped almost 3.9 percent to end at 719.52. Dealers said sentiment had been dampened after the head of one of the country's leading brokerage houses was charged with securities law breaches.
The JSX in Indonesia closed 0.7 percent lower at 614.39, after strong gains Tuesday. Thailand's Set index fell just over 1 percent to close at 451.43.
-- from staff and wire reports
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