Asian techs hammered by WorldCom shock


Sony and other tech-related stocks took a hammering in Asia Wednesday

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Asian tech stocks took a hammering Wednesday, with Tokyo closing more than 4 percent lower after shock admissions from U.S. telecoms provider WorldCom late Tuesday in the U.S.

South Korea fared worst in the region, with its Kospi tumbling a massive 7.15 percent as market heavyweight Samsung Electronics plunged 8.7 percent.

Taiwan closed 3.6 percent lower, Hong Kong lost 2.4 percent and Singapore is off 2.3 percent heading towards the end of trading.

Heavily indebted WorldCom, which fired its chief financial officer Tuesday, was forced to restate earnings by as much as $3.8 billion, raising the prospect of bankruptcy.(Full Story)

That sent its stock plunging in after-hours trade to 20 cents, following its Tuesday close in the U.S. of 83 cents.

WorldCom's senior management said it was "shocked" by the discoveries, which could amount to one of the worst examples of accounting fraud yet seen in the U.S. The telco said it will slash 17,000 jobs.

Reacting to the WorldCom shock and news that U.S. cable TV company Adelphia is filing for bankruptcy, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 average dropped 4.02 percent or 422.11 points to 10,074.56.

That is its lowest close since February 20 and the biggest percentage fall since September 17, 2001.

The broader capital-weighted Topix lost 3.16 percent or 32.15 points to 984.28.

The dollar firmed to 120.7 yen after the Bank of Japan again intervened to stem the yen's rise.

Samsung Electronics , Hynix fall


Troubled chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor has touched a record low of 200 won

In other tech-heavy Asian markets, Samsung Electronics' 8.71 percent loss to 309,000 won helped take the Kospi down 7.15 percent to 701.87, its lowest close since December 28 last year.

Samsung's troubled rival Hynix Semiconductor touched another record low, dropping 13 percent to just 200 won.

South Korea is also coming to terms with the defeat of its soccer team in the World Cup semifinal Tuesday night, when the Red Devils were beaten 1-0 by Germany(Full Story).

In Taiwan, the two big chip foundries, TSMC and UMC, both fell more than 4 percent. Asustek Computer gave up 5.8 percent to T$97.

The Taiex finished 3.63 percent down at 5123.04, with losses among banks and industrials matching those in the tech sector.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 dropped 1.5 percent to 3179.4, with market heavyweight News Corp again off sharply on the U.S. weakness.

News, which gets most of its revenue from U.S. operations, lost 74 cents or 7 percent to A$9.85. Big banks and resources stocks were also weaker.

In Malaysia, where long-serving leader Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will step down in late 2003, the KLSE Composite index fell 1.2 percent to 708.35(Full Story).

Japanese telcos weaker


In Taiwan, chip foundry UMC and its rival TSMC both closed sharply lower

WorldCom's woes flowed into the Japanese telco sector, with leading mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo losing 5.14 percent to 277,000 yen and rival KDDI down 6 percent to 344,000 yen.

DoCoMo's parent NTT is off 3.8 percent to 477,000 yen.

Consumer electronics giant Sony Corp lost 4.75 percent to 5810 yen, and chipmakers Fujitsu, Hitachi and Toshiba are down 4.4 to 5 percent.

Along with tech stocks, the big banks were also hurt in the broad market slide in Japan. The biggest fall was by Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, down 5.3 percent to 771,000 yen.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp lost 4.5 percent, Mizuho Holdings fell 3.4 percent andUFJ Holdings was off 3.9 percent.

Haruki Takahashi, manager of equity dealing at UFJ Tsubasa Securities, told Reuters news agency that WorldCom woes represented an important problem.

"The accounting problems in the U.S. are like the bad-loan problem here -- there seems to be no end. That really clouds the outlook for U.S. stocks," he said.

Hong Kong broadly lower

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng ended down 2.39 percent. Bluechips were broadly lower, with banking giant HSBC down about 1.7 percent and China Mobile off 3 percent.

Among property stocks, leader Sun Hung Kai Properties lost 2.95 percent to HK$57.50.

Singapore's Straits Times index is down 2.31 percent to 1529.61 in late afternoon trade. Banking leader DBS Group is down sharply, off 3.15 percent to S$12.30.

SingTel is down 2.2 percent, DBS has lost 3.9 percent and Singapore Airlines is off about 1.5 percent.