Learning English - Words in the News

02 November, 2007 - Published 11:28 GMT

Asian stock market falls

Stock markets across Asia fell on Friday following falls overnight on Wall Street as investors worried about an end to US interest rate cuts and a slowdown in the American economy. The Asian exchanges recorded falls of 2-3%. This report from Chris Hogg:
Listen to the story
A three-hundred point drop on Wall Street overnight spooked the markets across Asia. Here in Tokyo the Nikkei index of leading shares dropped more than two percent on Friday to finish three-hundred-and-fifty-two points lower - its lowest close all week.
The country's mega banks were hit hardest: shares in the top three Japanese banks all fell by around six percent.
There was no panic though. Thursday had seen Japanese stocks rise to their highest close in a fortnight and some saw this simply as an adjustment - the market unloading shares that may have risen too high too quickly.
It's a pattern we've seen several times this year so far - record highs followed by sharp drops. Across Asia, excluding Japan, share values have risen by about forty-five percent since early January.
Chris Hogg, BBC News, Tokyo
Listen to the words
drop on Wall Streeta sharp fall in share prices in the United States
spooked the marketsthis means that the markets (in Asia) became alarmed (by the sudden fall of the main American stock markets)
closehere, the value of shares at the end of a day of trading
mega banksmajor/biggest and most important banks
were hit hardestsuffered the most, were affected the most
There was no panichere, the situation on the markets remained relatively stable
Thursday had seen Japanese stocks riseon Thursday Japanese stocks rose/gained value
an adjustmenta slight change that happened in order to better reflect the current financial situation
unloading sharesselling off shares
a patterna regularly repeated sequence of इवेंट्स
http://www.bbc.co.uk