3 Jul 2009

Asia-Pacific markets follow Wall Street down

10:26 pm on 3 July 2009

Markets in Asia and the Pacific were lower at the end of the trading week, after Wall Street fell on the back of worse than expected US unemployment figures.

Some 467,000 jobs were lost in the United States in June, pushing the unemployment rate to 9.5% - the highest for 26 years.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 223.32 points, or 2.63%, to settle at 8,280.74 on Thursday.

The market is closed on Friday ahead of the Independence Day holiday on Saturday.

In New Zealand, the benchmark index was down 6 points, or 0.2%, to 2761 on Friday.

Top stocks were slightly up. Telecom was 3 cents higher at $2.69, Fletcher Building rose 2c to $6.54 and Contact Energy gained 6c to $5.76.

The Australian share market was down at the close. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 49.1 points, or 1.27%, to 3828.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index shed 48.6 points, or 1.25%, at 3826.6 points.

Japanese share prices were down 0.61% on Friday following the Wall Street result.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 60.08 points to 9,816.07. The broader Topix index of all first section shares slipped 3.40 points, or 0.37%, to 920.62.