Asian stocks tumble in wake of Wall Street's plunge; Nikkei down 2.3 percent

TOKYO (AP) - Asian markets tumbled Friday in the wake of one of Wall Street's biggest losses of the year.

Japan's main stock index, the Nikkei 225, fell as much as 2.55 percent, before ending the morning session at 17,291.23, down 410.86 points, or 2.32 percent. A stronger yen and uncertainty over weekend elections also took a toll on Japanese stocks.

Markets in Hong Kong, China, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand also fell.

Prices tumbled after Wall Street suffered one of its worst losses this year Thursday as investors succumbed to months of worry about the U.S mortgage and corporate lending markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 311.50 points or 2.26 percent, to 13,473.57, its biggest point drop since Feb. 27, when a fall in the Shanghai stock market rattled world exchanges.

That rattled Asian investors, who closely watch Wall Street and the U.S. economy because the United States is one of their biggest export markets.

By late morning Friday, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 438.71 points, or 1.89 percent, to 22,771.41, while Singapore's Straits Times index slid 2.6 percent to 3,486.75. In Manila, the Philippine benchmark index tumbled 2.8 percent to 3,556.08.

Australian stocks fell more than 2 percent, with all 20 top stocks dropping. Weaker commodity prices on the London Metal Exchange also hit major miners like BHP Billiton, which was down 3 percent.

"There is selling right across the board, and it's really a question of degree as to which one has gone down by more and which one has gone down by less," said Andrew Sekely, director of equities at Intersuisse.

Chinese stocks, which hit a record Thursday, also fell Friday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.2 percent at 4,294.15 in late morning trading.

In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, however, quickly brushed off concerns about the influence by the U.S. stock declines on the economy in the region.

"The Japanese economy is expanding stably and I have not heard that there have been any major fluctuations in other key countries," Shiozaki said.

Analysts said Japanese stocks also suffered amid the yen's recent appreciation against the dollar and political uncertainty in Japan over the fate of Sunday's parliamentary elections.

Recent newspaper polls have predicted that the long ruling Liberal Democratic Party could win fewer than a third of the seats contested in Sunday's upper house elections. An election defeat would not immediately threaten its hold on power, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could face pressure to resign from other leaders within his party and from the public.

The dollar edged down in New York due to worries about the troubled U.S. housing market, and fell further in Tokyo. The dollar was trading at 118.96 yen at late morning Friday in Tokyo, down from 119.46 yen late Thursday in New York.

Export-sensitive shares were badly hit in Japanese markets, as a weaker dollar tends to shrink Japanese exporters' overseas income and makes their products less competitive abroad. Technology issues Fujitsu Ltd. fell 6 percent and Fanuc was down 2.7 percent. Automaker Honda Motor Co. lost 2.9 percent.

Some companies may have to lower their earnings outlooks in coming quarters if a stronger yen persists, said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities.

"A stronger Japanese yen has a greater impact on today's Nikkei than overnight losses on U.S. stocks," Fukunaga said.