Asia's markets closed Wednesday to bring down the curtain on a miserable year that saw them lose half their worth in the wake of the global financial meltdown.
Despite a number of bourses gaining some ground over the past few days, the overall picture for 2008 has been one of gloom as the worst economic crisis since the 1930s tore into investor confidence and battered stocks.
By the close of trading on Wednesday Hong Kong and Singapore had been almost halved over the year, Sydney lost more than 40 percent and Shanghai nearly two-thirds.
Tokyo was 42.12 percent down and Seoul 40.73 percent when they closed for the year on Tuesday.
Markets have been hammered by the world economic crisis, which was sparked by the collapse of the sub-prime, or high risk, mortgage market in the United States. This led to US mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae being taken over by the government in September.
But shares went into a tailspin soon after following the failure of Wall Street banking icon Lehman Brothers under a mountain of debt. Giant insurer American International Group then had to be bailed out by Washington.
A for the ailing industry was unable to stop the rot and world markets saw record falls and rises as they headed down.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was also battered and by the close of trading on Tuesday it was 34.65 percent off its 2007 finish.
Hong Kong finished the year 48.3 percent down on its 2007 close -- its worst annual percentage fall in 34 years.
The benchmark Hang Seng index ended Wednesday 1.1 percent up from the day before but its closing figure of 14,387.48 points is 13,425.17 lower than 12 months ago.
And Peter Lai, sales director of DBS Vickers, told AFP: "We have not reached the bottom yet. The worst will come when investors start to sell their shares in panic next year."
He believed the Hong Kong index could drop to somewhere around 10,600.
Sydney ended 1.9 percent higher Wednesday but still closed the year 41.3 percent lower than the end of 2007, shedding 2,617 points over the year to finish at 3,722.3.
"It was certainly a year everyone would rather forget, with the S&P/ASX200 index losing 2,617.5 points," said IG Markets analyst Ben Potter.
Global financial chaos wiped almost 600 billion dollars (415 billion US) from the in 2008.
With also in recession, the year could not have been worse for investors as the Nikkei, Asia's biggest index, dived on the back of suffering exporters due to a rising yen.
"It was a year beyond our imagination," said Kazuhiro Takahashi, an analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC.
Singapore closed 2008 down 49.17 percent as the city slipped into recession, while the powerhouse economy of China was unable to prevent the Shanghai bourse from feeling the effects of the global meltdown as it lost 65 percent. Taipei was 46 percent down.
The decimation of the markets was also reflected in plummeting .
Crude began the year breaking 100 dollars a barrel for the first time before soaring to more than 147 dollars in July and then going into freefall as fears over the world economy sank in and demand for energy dried up.
The region's other markets were also shattered, with Bangkok down 47.56 percent on the year, Manila 48.29 percent, Wellington 32 percent, while Kuala Lumpur had lost 39 percent and Mumbai and Jakarta more than half.
Copyright 2008  AFP Global Edition
