Washington Mutual's Failure, Bailout Plan Delay Pull Asian Shares Down

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - Fallout from delayed Wall Street financial bailout talks by the U.S. government continue to roil through financial markets sparking a sell off on Friday in the Asian markets, pushing down investors' confidence in the financial firms.

Additional bad news came from the U.S. financial sector as the FDIC took control of the beleaguered Washington Mutual Thursday night and sold it to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion for its insured deposits, assets and some liabilities of firm's banking operations.

As America's largest savings and loan bank, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The bank had been trying to raise capital to shore up its finances amid its unsuccessful efforts to value the mortgage-related assets and to trade in the market that faces a credit slump.

Oil futures continued downward fall as a light sweet crude-futures barrel for November delivery declined by $2.96 to $105.06 a barrel in Singapore's electronic trading on Friday.

On Thursday, November crude-oil futures moved up by $2.29 to close at $108.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currency trading, the yen changed hands at 105.38 yen per U.S. dollar in Asia on Friday, after it closed at 105.38 yen late Thursday in New York.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 average rallied and closed lower by 113.37 or 0.94 percent at 11,893.16 points, and the broader Topix index added 0.5 percent at 1,147.89 points.

Among exporters, shares of Canon declined by 1.4 percent, Nissan moved down 0.7 percent and Nintendo dropped by 1.7 percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed lower by 252.34 points or 1.33 percent at 18,682.09 points and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, also finished lower by 1.8 percent at 9,589.01 points.

Shares of HSBC Holdings PLC, which got 26 percent of its 2007 revenue in North America, gained by 0.7 percent in Hong Kong, following its decision to slash 1,100 jobs in its banking and markets division worldwide.

HSBC's global banking segment manages investment banking, treasury, and trading operations. The banking giant employs about 335,000 people around the world.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index also finished lower by 0.5 percent to 4,904.80 points in Sydney led by major financial companies of the country.

In the banking sector, Macquarie Group decreased by 2.4 percent, while ANZ Banking Group moved higher by 3.2 percent.

While, China's Shanghai composite index, which is considered as Asia's worst performing index so far this year with almost 60 percent losses, closed down by 0.2 percent at 2,293.784 points.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi declined by 1.7 percent at 1,476.33 points in Seoul, Taiwan's Taiex index finished 1.8 per cent lower. While, India's Sensex was trading lower by 1.8 percent lower at 13,297.78 points in Mumbai during late afternoon session.