The meltdown in the regional markets intensified yesterday as the collapse in the Hang Seng Index sent shock waves throughout most of Asia.
'It's like an anchor has been lifted,' Vickers Ballas regional research director Timothy Wong said.
'The negative sentiment already pervasive in the region has been made a whole lot worse by Hong Kong's collapse. It had been the only market in the region holding up and making sense.' A herd mentality set in with the Singaporean stock market and currency hardest hit as foreign funds headed for the door.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) went to war, jacking up overnight rates to 50 per cent to burn speculators and directly intervening in the market to prevent the Singapore dollar from collapse.
'This wave of attack is on the so-called safe havens,' said Sani Hamid, analyst at Standard & Poor's MMS International.
MAS nursed the Singapore dollar back to S$1.569 to the US dollar after it had dived to $1.597 in early trade, but the benchmark Straits Times Industrial Index closed down 4.72 per cent or 81.81 points, having shed more than 100 points at one stage to touch its lowest level in 56 months.
Other regional equity markets were burnt again. The Philippines fell 4.98 per cent, Malaysia was down 3.38 per cent and Indonesia was off 2.2 per cent.
