Hong Kong (AsiaNews) – Asian markets continued to tumble this morning, reacting to the latest downturn on Wall Street amid fears that the global financial crises could involve many more companies. By mid morning trading the entire region’s indexes were negative.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is leading losses registering 7.22%, at its lo west level in over 3 years. Shanghai is close behind down 5.8%.
In Japan the Nikkei is down 3.79%, even if Japan’s Central Bank released 14 billion dollars onto the market in an attempt to stabilise it. Seoul lost 3.6%; Singapore 4.75; Taipei 4.5%. All of the other indexes are clocking up losses in the wake of the Wall Street tumble which amounted to -4.06%. The Federal Reserve has attempted to save insurance giant AIG with a loan of over 85 billion dollars, following the collapse of Lehman Bros and the take over of Merril Lynch.
“Trust in the market has totally collapsed” confirms Francis Lun, director of Fulbright Securities Hong Kong. “The US financial crises is affecting everyone, everyone is racing for cover….. no one is safe”.
Analysts maintain that flooding the market with money is not resolving, rather increasing the problem. Economist Maurizio d’Orlando confirms that “this crises has been a long time brewing. The American economy has suffered negative growth since 2001. Unemployment is at 15% as is the growth of the amount of money in circulation. The most worrying factor is the increased amount of money in circulation, amplified by these recent financial bail outs. Unfortunately this means that everyone ends up paying hidden inflation costs, the fault of those who have gotten rich through their financial double dealing”.
