Share prices fall on most major stock exchanges

TOKYO (Agencies): Share prices fell on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the dollar's continued fall to record lows against the yen, but recovered somewhat from their sharp drop in the morning.

The Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues in the first section ended at 20,543.41 points, down 100.52 points or 0.5 percent.

The broader-based Tokyo Stock Price Index of all issues in the section, which gained 6.70 points Thursday, lost 11.16 points to end at 1,662.16.

The benchmark Nikkei index fell to a low of 20,274.95 late in the morning session when the dollar sank below 98 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchange for the first time in post-war history.

In Hong Kong, the key Hang Seng Index lost 124.04 points to close the week's trading at 8,634.04 as the local market to extend trading hours by another 15 minutes.

Turnover thinned to HK$2.19 billion ($282 million) from the previous day's HK$3.19 billion.

In Singapore, the blue chip Straits Times Industrials index fell 14.26 points to close provisionally at 2,210.65 points.

In Sydney, the All Ordinaries Index closed at 1,965.8 points, 23.3 points or 1.2 percent down on Thursday's finish. The All Industrials Index fell 29.0 points to 2,899.4, while the All Resources Index slumped 19.3 points to 1,263.1.

National turnover totaled 186.9 million shares worth A$353 million ($258 million), falls marginally outnumbering rises.

In London, shares on the London Stock Exchange were slightly higher, shrugging off earlier losses on the back of firming government bonds.

The blue-chip Financial Times Stock Exchange 100-share index was at 2,924.1, up 4.9 points. The narrower Financial Times 30 index was at 2,280.6 points, up 3.9 points.

Volume was moderate with 136.9 million shares traded near midmorning, down from 155.6 million at the same time Thursday.

In New York, Blue-chip stock prices tumbled Thursday on Wall Street amid fresh concerns over rising interest rates.

The Dow Jones index of 30 leading industrials fell 42.09 points to close at 3,624.96.

On the broader market, losing shares outnumbered advancers 1,272 to 947 with 599 unchanged. Some 293 million shares were traded.