2007年VOA标准英语-Asian Stocks Continue Plunge on Credit Fears

By Heda Bayron
Hong Kong
16 August 2007

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Chinese investors chat at a private security company, 16 Aug 2007 in Shanghai, China

There was no let-up Thursday in the wave of selling on Asian stock markets. As VOA's Heda Bayron reports from Hong Kong, investors are haunted by fears of a global credit crunch² triggered by the U.S. home loan crisis.

South Korea's KOSPI recorded the region's biggest drop Thursday - 125 points, or nearly 7 percent. It was the biggest one-day point decline in the KOSPI's history.

Hong-rae Cho, head of research at the Korean Investment and Securities Company in Seoul, says individual investors and large fund managers are all dumping South Korean shares.

He says everyone fears the worst from widespread problems with so-called "sub-prime" home loans in the United States.

"I think this is the worst day," he said. "Everybody is under the impact of the sub-prime crisis in the U.S. market."

 

The KOSPI closed at 1,691. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index was down 2 percent, at 16,148. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 3.3 percent to 20,672. China's Shanghai Composite Index finished more than 2 percent lower at 4,765.

The U.S. sub-prime loan crisis came about after years of loose lending that allowed people with poor credit ratings to borrow money to buy homes. As U.S. interest rates have risen, many of those borrowers have defaulted, and some lenders have gone bankrupt, creating a wider credit problem in the United States.

Investors are afraid banks, hurt by these defaults, will become conservative in their lending, and funding for businesses will disappear as a result.

Some Asian central banks, following the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, have injected billions of dollars into the market in recent days to maintain liquidity³ and reduce such concerns.

The regional sell-off has prompted government leaders to give assurances that their countries' economic fundamentals are strong.

The South Korean government urged investors not to panic after Thursday's fall.

Government spokesman Chun Ho-seon says South Korean financial authorities will take a leading role in taking care of any problems.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard also tried to reassure⁴ investors Thursday.

"Our financial institutions are very stable and the underpinnings are such that we are better to able to handle changes and shocks of this kind," he said.

Analysts⁵ say the exposure by Asian banks and other corporations to the U.S. sub-prime loan market is limited. Nevertheless, some of the region's home lending companies says they are already having difficulty finding new loans.

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

3 liquidity   

n.流动性，偿债能力，流动资产

参考例句：

• The bank has progressively increased its liquidity.银行逐渐地增加其流动资产。
• The demand for and the supply of credit is closely linked to changes in liquidity.信用的供求和流动资金的变化有密切关系。

4 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

5 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。