newsbytes@clarinet.com (01/18/90)
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1990 JAN 16 (NB) -- Even though Wall Street's first day of the week's trading saw share prices fall away to New Year levels, the Taiwanese market continued to shine, with a closing figure of 10,867.6 points--up 308.44 points on the day--a record for Taiwan. Not all the markets were as rosy as Taiwan, however. Tokyo's Nikkei Dow index remained stable as a public holiday halted trading, while the Hongkong Hang Seng index closed down 49.25 points to end the day at 2,786.7. Even a visit by Douglas Hurd, the British Home Secretary, did little to appease Hongkong industrialist's publicly voicing their fears about the forthcoming Chinese takeover. In Singapore, share prices followed the Wall Street lead and plummeted, pushing the Straits Times index to 1,525.54 - a fall of more than 33 points on Friday's figure. Sydney, meanwhile, could not escape the downturn. The Australian capital's All Ordinaries Index (AOI) slumped by 32 points--its biggest drop since October, 1989--to end the day at 1,681.7 points. Dealers around the world seem worried that the situation in world markets is causing 1990 to start on a negative note, leaving black marks everywhere and causing billions of dollars of assets to be written off overnight. (Peter Vekinis/19900117)