Asia shares fall over Greece debt

Businessmen walk past a screen showing the Nikkei index (6 May 2010)

Stock markets in Asia have fallen sharply on opening, amid investor fears that Greece’s debt crisis could halt the global economic recovery.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index lost 437 points, or 4%, while Australia’s S&P shed 132 points, or 2.8%.

It comes a day after US markets had their worst day since 1987, with the Dow Jones falling 9%, before rallying.

Also on Thursday, Greece approved the hefty cuts to address the country’s economic crisis, amid violent protests.

The DowJones recovered to end down about 3.2% on Thursday.

Losses also hit markets throughout Latin America.

The worst were at Buenos Aires’ Merval Index, which closed down 5.4%.

"The reason for today’s fall is what everybody knows – Greece," Hideaki Higashi, of Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities, told the news agency AFP on Friday.

"The market is factoring in the possibility that this Greek problem will spread to Spain and Portugal."

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *