(Agencies-China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-23 10:13

Shell-shocked investors from Shanghai to Sydney counted the cost to their pensions and savings as Asian stock markets tumbled on fears that recession in the United States would rock the rest of the world.

A man looks at stock market monitors in Shanghai on January 22, 2008. Shell-shocked investors from Shanghai to Sydney counted the cost to their pensions and savings as Asian stock markets tumbled on fears that recession in the United States would rock the rest of the world. [Xinhua]

Huang Yuyin, a Shanghai resident who has taken premature retirement and spends most of his time dabbling in shares, has lost 5,000 yuan in the past two days.

"I have no idea what to do next but wait and pray for a rebound," he said, helplessness written all over his face.

"This market is deadly - you'd better stay out of it," warned retired sales manager Peter Chan, who sat with other stock punters at a brokerage in bustling central Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 8.65 percent lower, its worst one-day loss since September 2001, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost more than 7 percent.

"I've been in this market since the 1980s and I've seen four crashes. The worst happened in the 1980s, when I lost all my money and my wife left me," added Chan, who said he'd already sold his stockholdings.

Across the South China Sea, in a Taipei trading room of Fubon Securities, dozens of glum-faced investors stared at a large screen on the wall awash in green - the local color code for stock losses.

"Everybody was anxiously pulling their money out of stocks," said George Hsieh, who manages $370 million for Capital Investment Trust Corp in Taipei.

A woman surnamed Lin at a branch of E.Sun Securities in Taipei said she lost more than $1,500 in two hours of trading. The main TAIEX index ended 6.5 percent lower. "Every time the market plunges, it should be a great buying opportunity," she said. "But I just don't have enough money now."

"I just feel sick, very sick," said retired IT manager Peter Hurst from Melbourne, who relies on investment income as well as his pension.

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