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Asia opens lower on war fears
TOKYO, Japan -- Tokyo stocks fell near a 20-year low Friday morning on the prospect of an imminent war in Iraq. Other Asian markets are also down. Also weighing on the Japanese market is a reported investigation into alleged stock manipulation by Nikko Salomon Smith Barney. The Nikkei 225 average is down more than 1 percent to 8,278.73, below a two-decade closing low of 8,303.39 seen last November. The broader Topix index is down 0.9 percent to 808.85. Big exporters and banks are among the major losers. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, is down 1.8 percent to 219,000 yen. Other markets in the region are also lower in early trading Friday, with a loss of almost 1.3 percent for the Kospi in Seoul. Australia and Singapore are both down about 1 percent. New Zealand's market is off about a quarter of percent. Taiwan opened higher but has slipped into the red. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said Nikko Salomon -- a joint venture between Nikko Cordial Corp and Citigroup Inc -- allegedly boosted prices of five or six issues last July by placing a wave of buy orders before the close of trading in order to boost its profits on the creation of an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The newspaper report sent shares in Nikko Cordial down 8.73 percent to 386 yen, while leading brokerage Nomura Holdings fell 1.85 percent to 1,328. A Nikko Salomon spokesman said the company was investigating the report but was not yet able to comment. Financial sources told Reuters that the Securities and Exchange Surveilance Commission watchdog would likely seek a penalty as soon as Friday. "This report casts a bit of a shadow over the reputation of the brokerage industry," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities. "Selling has pretty much spread sector wide." Speculation that war in Iraq is imminent was also dampening market sentiment. Sony Corp, the world's biggest consumer electronics maker, dropped 1.62 percent to 4,260 yen, after touching 4,250, a new 17-month low. In Seoul, the Kospi is down 1.12 percent to 549.10. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics is down 1.27 percent to 272,500 won. In Australia, the S&PASX200 is down 0.89 percent to 2751.2, a fresh three-year low. News Corp is off 2.34 percent to A$9.59 and resources stocks BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are also down. Telco Telstra is 1.22 percent lower to A$4.06 after CEO Ziggy Switkowski denied a report that a deal had been reached with the banking syndicate to Reach, the Telstra-PCCW joint venture. (Full story) Reuters contributed to this report.
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