HONG KONG, July 27 — Stock markets across Asia suffered one of the worst falls of the year Friday as contagion spread from Wall Street. By midafternoon some market indexes in the region were down by more than 4 percent as investors deserted riskier assets.
Among the companies worst hit were consumer goods manufacturers heavily dependent on the U.S. market, such as makers of cars, semiconductors and electronic appliances.
Samsung Electronics was down 4.8 percent to 596,000 won on top of earlier declines over the previous four days. Taiwan Semiconductor, the world’s largest custom-chip maker, fell 5.4 percent to 64.50 Taiwan dollars.
None of the region’s major markets was spared. The Nikkei 225 in Japan closed down 418.28 points, or 2.4 percent, to 17,283.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed down 2.81 percent. By early afternoon, the Taiex, in Taiwan, fell by 4.2 percent, the Singapore Straits Times index fell 3.2 percent and the Hang Seng, in Hong Kong, fell 1.9 percent.
But some analysts said the stock market falls in Asia — the worst in four months — might only be temporary, despite concerns about the health of the U.S. economy and in particular the state of the housing market.
Chris Lobello, a risk and trading strategist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Hong Kong, said Asian markets were gradually becoming “less hostage” to trends in U.S. markets.
“The truth is that looking back over 10 years of history we are seeing Asia decouple a bit from the U.S.,” he said.
Mr. Lobello predicted that Asian markets would recover in the coming weeks, barring a major meltdown in the U.S. economy.
Other analysts were less sanguine. Andrew Wang, a fund manager at Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise in Taipei, said the sell-off in Asia was not “the end of the bull market,” Bloomberg News reported. But he added: “It must feel like that for some panicky investors.”
