Asia stocks fall on Bear Stearns' near-collapse

17 March 2008 04:19  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Asian stock markets fell across the region on Monday’s open as worries of economic troubles from the US subprime crisis deepened on the near-collapse of 85-year-old investment bank Bear Stearns late last week.

JPMorgan Chase agreed on Sunday to buy Bear Stearns for $240m (€153.6m) in a stock-swap deal. The US Federal Reserve will provide financing for the transaction, including support for as much as $30bn of Bear Stearns’ less-liquid assets.

In Asia, the buyout coupled with a weakening dollar and record crude oil prices, caused indices across the region to fall up to 5%.

Petrochemical stocks also slid with Sinopec, PetroChina, Shin-Etsu Chemical, SK Energy, Daelim Industrial and Sumitomo Chemical recording huge falls.

Sinopec, PetroChina fell 9.1% and 6.2% respectively in Hong Kong while South Korea engineering major Daelim Industrial was down 7.4%.

A record yen against the dollar hurt export-oriented companies Shin-Etsu and Sumitomo Chemical, causing their shares to fall around 4%.

Taiwanese majors Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Formosa Plastics and Nan Ya Plastics were also down around 3% on Monday.

($1 = €0.64)

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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