Tokyo, Japan
1. Various of electronic boards
2. Wide of Tokyo Stock Exchange
3. Traders working
4. Pan of Tokyo Stock Exchange
5. Traders working
6. Wide of Tokyo Stock Exchange
Hong Kong
7. Various of electronic board showing Hang Seng Index down 546.28 points to 22781.32 points
8. Wide pan of trading floor
9. Various of trading board
10. Traders working
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Frances Lun, General Manager of Fulbright Securities:
"And of course in Asia you have the looming Asian financial crisis. Vietnam is the first domino to fall, we don't know if others will follow. And in addition, China's markets also not doing well, I think inflation is very high."
12. Various of traders working
13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Frances Lun, General Manager of Fulbright Securities:
"The market sentiment is very poor, everybody's trying to sell out and looking for cover I think. The index now is 22,800, I think it might fall a little bit further, maybe the support level will be 22-thousand."
14. Traders working
15. Wide of trading floor
STORYLINE:
Asian stock markets retreated on Thursday after Wall Street's overnight loss, as high oil prices aggravated worries about inflation and the possibility of higher interest rates.
In Japan the stock market sharply dropped in the morning session, ending at 13,861.70 - 321.78 points down compared to Wednesday.
TOPIX hit 1,360.61, 29.42 points down compared to the last trading.
In Hong Kong the blue-chip Hang Seng Index was off 1.8 percent to 22,906.47.
Markets in Taiwan, India, Australia and Singapore also fell more than two percent.
The Shanghai Composite Index suffered its seventh day of declines, falling 2.3 percent to 2,955.22 by midafternoon.
The benchmark has dropped more than 15.4 percent since June 2.
Inflationary fears drove most of the declines, with investors concerned higher prices would sap consumer spending and lead central banks to hike interest rates.
That could further hurt corporate profits at a time when the US economy, a vital export market for Asia, is already sputtering.
Overnight in the US, the Federal Reserve indicated that Americans are straining under rising energy and food costs, and that Fed said the economy remains "generally weak."
The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points to its lowest close since mid-March.
Oil prices eased in Asia after jumping on Wednesday, but still remained near record levels.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery was down 1.50 US dollars to 134.90 US dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after surging 5.07 US dollars the previous day.
In China, investors were jittery over the likelihood of further credit-tightening measures even as new figures showed the country's inflation rate dipped slightly last month to 7.7 percent.
Mainland China investors dumped financial shares. China Life Insurance shed 6.4 percent and Citic Securities was off 5.5 percent.
In Hong Kong, rising crude prices took a toll. Sinopec slid 4.5 percent, while PetroChina lost 2.71 percent.
Airline Cathay Pacific pulled back almost 1.8 percent.
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