Asian shares slip after Wall St rout

Asia’s markets fell on Friday following hefty plunges on Wall Street as US technology stocks suffered another sell-off, while China released data showing inflation picked up in March but was still below forecasts. Tokyo sank 2.31 per cent by the break, Hong Kong lost 0.61 % , Shanghai was 0.18 % lower, Sydney shed 0.91 % and Seoul was down 0.77%. In US, Nasdaq suffered another slump on Thursday on lingering fears that high-flying technology stocks like Facebook and Netflix may be overvalued. The tech-weighed index plunged 3.10 %, the biggest single-day percentage point drop since November 2011. The loss wiped out a 2-day rally that picked up on Wednesday when the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting suggested no support for an early rise in interest rates. But Thursday’s rout spread to other stocks, with New York’s two other main indexes also hit. The Dow shed 1.62 % and the S&P 500 was down 2.09%. In China the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said inflation came in at 2.4 per cent last month, up from 2.0 % in February but short of the 2.5 % estimated by economists. While the figure will soothe fears of possible deflation in the world’s number two economy it is still well below the government’s annual target of 3.5 %, according to AFP.