Asian markets slump on Italy fears

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Asian stock markets slumped on Thursday after Wall Street suffered a pummelling, with a surge in Italy’s borrowing costs fuelling global anxiety about the future of the euro.

The common European currency dipped, Hong Kong stocks slumped more than four percent and in Tokyo, the Nikkei ended down more than two percent.

“Just as everyone was beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, the European crisis seems to have got worse overnight,” IG Markets analyst Stan Shamu said in Sydney, where stocks dived more than three percent.

Investors in Asia took succour on Wednesday from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s vow to resign once credible economic reforms are in place by the end of the month.

But in Europe and the United States, markets took flight at the prospect of a long bout of political uncertainty in Italy to compound the deepening debt crisis in Greece, where leaders are bickering about a new government.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.20 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 3.67 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3.88 percent.

The euro bought $1.3543 and 105.25 yen, down from $1.3544 and 105.38 yen in New York but recovering from earlier lows in Asia.

The dollar stood at 77.68 yen, from 77.78 in New York on Wednesday.

While Greece is struggling to meet strictures imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund for another bailout, Italy is seen as too big to rescue given its size as the eurozone’s third-largest economy.

Rome’s bond yields have now surged to a critical level above seven percent and the EU’s nascent bailout fund lacks the firepower to help. Other powers such as China and Japan are lukewarm about coming to Europe’s rescue.

The surge in Italian borrowing costs came at a sensitive time for the eurozone as “the details of the European Financial Stability Facility aren’t nailed down yet,” said Yumi Nishimura, senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

The Nikkei in Tokyo closed down 2.91 percent, or 254.64 points, at 8,500.80 and Sydney ended 2.35 percent, or 102 points, lower at 4,244.1.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong dived 4.34 percent in the afternoon and Shanghai dropped 1.33 percent.