TOKYO, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Japan's Nikkei index led the Asian-Pacific markets rout Thursday on the heels of Wall Street's plunge on rising concerns of an economic slowdown.
The 225-stock Nikkei, which opened sharply lower Thursday in response to the Dow's 700-point carnage the previous day, never recovered the rest of the day.
It ended the day dropping 1,089 points, or 11.41 percent, to 8,458.45, the second-largest percentage loss since the 14.9-percent plunge on Oct. 20, 1987, Kyodo news service reported.
"Stocks have been falling because of a series of financial problems, but yesterday's fall is a bad sign because the Dow fell (more than) 700 points simply because of macroeconomic reasons with no financial concerns surfacing,'' Masayoshi Okamoto at Jujiya Securities Co. was quoted as saying.
The sharp fall in September U.S. retail sales and the U.S. Federal Reserve's Beige Book report showing weakened economic activity in September across all 12 Federal Reserve districts sent investors rushing to the sidelines, Kyodo said.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was off more than 5 percent to close at 15,180, CNN reported. South Korea's KOSPI index ended down 9.4 percent
Australian and Singapore markets also suffered hefty losses.
India's 30-stock Sensex index, which took a huge hit on the Mumbai stock exchange the previous day, opened more than 700 points down Thursday but managed to pare most of its losses to close with a much smaller loss.
