Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Stock markets across Asia have extended their losses Thursday morning, weighed down by a weak lead from Wall Street.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down by 0.5% while in China the Shanghai Composite has lost 0.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is lower by 1.2%, reports BBC.
In Australia, the ASX 200 is down by 1% while South Korea’s Kospi manages to beat the trend and trades 0.4% higher.
Shares in Samsung Electronics are trading up by 0.4%, despite the company’s weak quarterly figures released earlier in the day.
BIG BANG: ‘HAPPENED BY CHANCE’
“The Big Bang happened, in a sense, by chance,” said Lord Lawson, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer when reforms to the financial sector, know as the Big Bank, were introduced in 1986.
Lord Lawson said competition officials were looking at the stock exchange, which he says was a “cosy cartel” allowing a group of exchange members to keep out competition.
Instead of going to court, a deal was done to remove restrictive practices.
At the time New York was “romping ahead”, so Lord Lawson saw a chance to close that gap.
The Big Bang was never about banking, he points out. It was about stocks and shares.
However the reforms allowed banks to move into the securities business.
SAMSUNG PROFITS DOWN 30%
South Korean technology giant Samsung has seen profits plunge after the recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.
Operating profit between July and September fell 30% from a year earlier to 5.2tn won ($4.6bn, £3.8bn) – the lowest level in two years.
“The company is saying it is confident that things will pick up in this quarter and the next quarter,” says the BBC’s Rico Hizon in Singapore.
Samsung shares were up around 1%.
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