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Asian shares slip after Wall St rout

Hong Kong - 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% by the break, Hong Kong lost 0.61%, Shanghai was 0.18% lower, Sydney shed 0.91% and Seoul was down 0.77%.

The 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 two-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%.

Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, said investors were reducing equity exposure across the board and added: "Lower prices were bringing out more sellers."

He warned: "The market is on very shaky legs."

On forex markets the dollar bought ¥101.55 early on Friday, compared with ¥101.44 late in New York, but down from ¥101.81 in Tokyo earlier on Thursday.

The euro slipped to ¥141.06 from ¥140.88 in US trade while buying $1.3889 against $1.3888.

In China the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said inflation came in at 2.4% 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%.

Oil prices fell. New York's main contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery eased 19 cents to $103.21 a barrel in early Asian trade and Brent North Sea crude was also down 15c to $107.31 for its May contract.

Gold fetched $1 319.00 an ounce at 02:40 GMT, up from $1 322.70 late on Thursday.

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