HONG KONG: Asian markets slipped again on Friday as traders were increasingly concerned that the eurozone crisis will soon envelope larger economies after borrowing costs for France and Spain shot higher.
Tokyo fell 1.33 percent by the break, Hong Kong lost 1.81 percent, Sydney shed 1.71 percent, Seoul was 1.85 percent lower and Shanghai gave up 0.88 percent.
"There's been no let-up in the European debt crisis and there's no sign of officials deciding anything that's going to calm markets," said Macquarie Private Wealth investment adviser James Rosenberg in Sydney.
"It's a long road back to improving sentiment," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
As the yield on Italy's 10-year government bonds once again topped the 7.0 percent level considered unsustainable for the government to service its huge debts, fears were growing that Spain and even France could be next in line.
In auctions Thursday Paris and Madrid saw their cost of borrowing jump.
Spain had to pay a record 6.975 percent when it raised 3.6 billion euros in a sale of 10-year bonds.
And in France, the bloc's second-largest economy, the spread between 10-year bonds and the equivalent German Bund hit 200.6 basis points, or 2.006 percentage points.
It means Paris must now pay more than twice as much as Germany to borrow.
"Deepening European sovereign-debt problems weigh on stocks globally," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of the equity division at SMBC Nikko Securities.
The crisis shows no sign of letting up and divisions between the European leaders continued to show as officials in Berlin came under pressure to allow the European Central Bank to play a bigger role in helping economies.
And on Friday Japan also called on Germany -- Europe's biggest economy -- to play a leading role in dragging the region back from the brink.
In Italy new Prime Minister Mario Monti's technocrat government eased through a confidence vote hours after the former EU commissioner laid out radical reforms to cut Rome's huge debt burden.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told him that "great hopes and expectations are directed at you".
"You and your government are called upon to quickly decide and implement crucial and necessary reform measures," Merkel said.
The debilitating crisis continued to press US stocks. On Wall Street the Dow closed down 1.13 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.68 percent and the Nasdaq lost 1.96 percent.
The euro fetched $1.3467 and 103.66 yen in early Asian trade, compared with $1.3457 and 103.60 yen in New York late Thursday.
The dollar was at 76.95 yen, from 76.97 yen.
The commodities-based Australian dollar fell below parity to the greenback for the first time since October 10, hitting a low of 99.70 US cents overnight. By 0210 GMT it was at 99.97. Risk aversion has sent the "Aussie" falling from its record high US$110.81 seen in July.
On oil markets, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, shed 49 cents to $98.33 per barrel on its last trading day.
Brent North Sea crude for January delivery fell 30 cents to $107.71.
Gold was trading at $1,720.00 an ounce by 0210 GMT, compared with $1,759.26 late Thursday.
Comments
Comments are closed.