Asian equities were mostly lower early Friday after stocks on Wall Street closed in the red for the third consecutive session. Fears of a slowdown in Chinas economy following a contractionary reading on HSBCs flash Chinese Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for January on Thursday weighed on sentiment in the U.S. overnight. The Dow lost over 1 percent, the S&P 500 fell 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq slipped 0.6 percent. Nikkei drops 1.9%. Japanese shares extended Thursdays losses with sharp declines in early trading. Top losers include Konica Minolta and Yokogawa Electric which lost 3.8 percent, each. Kospi loses 0.2%. South Korean shares dipped in early trade. Samsung was up 0.4 percent, despite posting its first decline in quarterly profit in two years. The electronics giant attributed smaller profits to factors like a one-off 800 billion won special bonus to its employees and slowing smartphone sales. -Reuters
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 00:28:54 +0000
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