Asia hammered by stocks sell-off

9 August 2011 Last updated at 01:05 ET Asian markets tumble after share sell-off in the US Asian markets have been hammered amid fears that the US is heading for a recession and after Wall Street posted the biggest losses since late 2008. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.8%, South <a href="http://www.2011designerhandbags.com/alexander-mcqueen-handbags-c-7.html"><strong>alexander mcqueen bags sale</strong></a> Korea's Kospi lost 5.3%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 6%. Earlier in the US, the Dow Jones stock index dropped 5.6%, despite US President Barack Obama trying to reassure investors. A US recession would hurt Asia's export-led economies. &quot;You can't control it,&quot; Peter Esho, chief market analyst at City Index, told the BBC. &quot;You have the onset of fear in the market. There are a lot of things that don't make sense.&quot; Sharp falls Indexes in some parts of Asia are seeing their value drop to its lowest levels in many months. Japan's Nikkei 225 has fallen below 9,000 points for the first time since the country was hit by a deadly earthquake and tsunami on 11 March. Exporters' shares are leading the drop on Tuesday in Tokyo with carmaker Honda sliding 6% and electronics firm Sharp shedding 5.8%. South Korea's Kospi index briefly suspended trading after dropping sharply, down as much as 8.6% at one point on Tuesday. Hynix Semiconductor, one of the world's biggest memory chip makers, dropped 10%, and Samsung Electronics shed 7.6% The plunge on the Hong Kong Hang Seng index pushes its drop in value to 23% from an 8 November peak, according to data published by Bloomberg news agency. &quot;People are trading on emotions at the moment, rather than looking at the rational situation. There's widespread panic,&quot; said Chris Weston of IG Markets in Melbourne. &quot;How much further to fall? is the question people are asking.&quot; Rocking market A number of issues have created the current market pessimism. At the heart of the sell-off is the fear that ongoing debt problems in the US and Europe will slow economic growth and dent corporate profits. On top of that, on Friday the US had its triple A credit rating cut by Standard and Poor's for the first time in history, adding to the sense of gloom surrounding the world's biggest economy. Continue reading the main story &quot;What's rocking the market is a growth scare,&quot; said Kathleen Gaffney of Loomis Sayles. She said investors were concerned about &quot;how Europe and the US are going to work their way out of a high debt burden&quot; if the global <a href="http://www.2011designerhandbags.com/alexander-mcqueen-handbags-c-7.html"><strong>alexander mcqueen clutch</strong></a> economy slows. With this in mind, other asset classes were also impacted on Tuesday. Crude oil prices continued to slide amid concerns that demand would wane in coming months. Analysts said just like stock markets, the fall in oil prices was being driven by fear. &quot;I'm surprised how far it has fallen in all markets, this is panic,&quot; said Jeremy Friesen, a commodity strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. &quot;Demand hasn't pulled back in the past day, it's just speculation that it will,&quot; he added. Gold, meanwhile, hit a new record as investors looked for assets that are considered to be less risky. The Swiss franc also gained. Not immune Analysts said that while economies in Asia had been growing robustly and the outlook for the region remained positive, a slowdown in the US and Europe could hurt growth significantly. Not least because the stock market slump may put off consumer and corporate spending. &quot;When you see such significant falls, Asia cannot distance itself completely,&quot; said City Index's Mr Esho. Rajiv Biswas of IHS Global Insight told the BBC that investors were also worried that <a href="http://www.2011designerhandbags.com/alexander-mcqueen-handbags-c-7.html"><strong>alexander mcqueen handbags</strong></a> the cut in the US credit rating would force a serious reining in of budgetary spending. &quot;That will be a big drag on growth,&quot; he said. Mr Biswas added that there was &quot;little doubt&quot; that a slowdown in the US and Europe would hurt growth and trade in Asia. Analysts said that Asian economies may now have to revise their own economic projections as a result. On Monday, Singapore cut its growth forecast for this year to between 5-6%, down from 5-7%. &quot;The discussion now in Asia is to have a look at growth assumptions and perhaps even to revise numbers that could be a little too optimistic in light of what is happening in the markets,&quot; said City Index's Mr Esho. Broad sell-off Investors have been dumping stocks across all industries in the US and Asia. The S&amp;P 500 index <a href="http://www.xinzhouba.com/view.php?id=39571"><strong>women s clotWprognostics Caggregationhing » Women's Panties</strong></a> was down 6.7% in New York on Monday, the worst drop since December 2008, with every listed stock falling. In points terms, the Dow ended down 635 to 10,810, its biggest one-day decline since October 2008, and the sixth largest on record. The Nasdaq index fell even further, losing 6.9%. Earlier in the UK, the main FTSE 100 index lost 3.4%, or 178 points. It was the first time in the FTSE 100's 27-year history that it had fallen by more than 100 points for four sessions in a row. Share indexes also fell heavily across Europe on Monday, with Germany's Dax ending down 5%, while France's Cac lost 4.7%.