DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to take a look at how markets fared in Asia. We saw some profit taking in Tokyo. Here to bring us up to speed is Dalton Tanonaka, live from Hong Kong. Good morning -- Dalton.</s>DALTON TANONAKA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Deborah. Asian markets spent the day, for the most part, all losing ground, driven down by corporate earnings shortfalls both here in Asia and in the United States. Tokyo's Nikkei closed just off session lows, at 14,289. That's more than 1.5 percent weaker. The market was led lower by banking shares, over worries of a government delay in setting up a stock buy- back fund, aimed at absorbing the industry's excessive equity holdings. Japan's leading mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, rang down more than 5.5 percent, after it announced plans to lower prices in the face of mounting competition. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell nearly .5 percent, and one of the big movers there continues to be banking giant HSBC Holdings. The company confirmed a long rumored multimillion-dollar share offering, but it's denying that it's raising the money for the purchase of U.S. brokerage house Merrill Lynch. The bank says it will use the extra shares for employee options. In Seoul, weakness in the banking sector helped take the blue chip KOSPI down nearly 1 percent. The tech heavy KOSDAQ fell more than .5 percent. That is the business day here in Asia. Back to you, Deb, in New York.</s>MARCHINI: All right, Dalton, thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Asian Market Update: Stocks Driven Down by Corporate Earnings