Taipei  - Taiwan stocks lost 2.88 per cent Monday, dragged down by Wall Street's sharp decline over US banking woes in previous trading, dealers said.

The main TAIEX index opened sharply lower and extended its heavy losses to close at 4,425.83, down 131.32 points, or 2.88 per cent.

Dealers said US banking fears put local finance shares under heavy pressure, and reports about lender HSBC's plan to scale back its US consumer finance operations further dampened the market sentiment.

Sydney  - Australian stocks t

Tokyo  - Japan's key Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost more than 3 per cent Monday following Wall Street's decline before the weekend and the yen's advance against the US dollar.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 242.46 points, or 3.2 per cent, to 7,325.96.

The broader Topix index of all first section issues was also down 18.6 points, or 2.56 per cent, to 738.11.

After opening the day on a flat note, Indian equities closed the week on a negative note with Realty stocks being hit the most.  

After the announcement of depressing GDP numbers, the 30-share BSE Sensex slipped further downwards.

A fag-end buying assisted Sensex to recover the majority of its heavy losses but still closed down by 63 points.

Bears spared midcap and smallcap counters. The BSE Midcap index fell 0.04%, whereas Smallcap index lost 0.22%.

Rupee breached the psychological 51 per US dollar mark and plummeted to a record low against dollar as banks continuously bought the greenback for importers and foreign institutional investors (FII

The board of directors of Reliance Industries (RIL), India's largest private company, and Reliance Petroleum (RPL) are set to meet on March 2 to consider a merger of the two companies.

RIL currently holds 70.6% in RPL.

More clarity on the swap ratio is expected to emerge on Monday. For the moment, many feel the move will benefit RIL's shareholders more than those holding RPL shares.

RIL is currently trading at Rs 1,265.05 per share, while RPL trades at Rs 76.20 per share. On that basis, the swap ratio works out to one share of RIL for 16.6 shares of RPL.

On the basis of book value, the swap ratio is expected to be around 20 shares of RPL for every one share of RIL.