Beijing - Shares in China's two stockmarkets plunged by nearly 4 per cent on Friday, following a regional fall prompted by the US Senate's failure to approve an emergency loan package for the auto industry.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, ended the day on 1,954.21, down 3.81 per cent, or 77.47 points.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite also lost nearly 4 per cent of its value, as the Shanghai Daily newspaper said investors were "taking profits due a gloomy economic outlook and fear of future losses."

Manila  - Philipine shares slipped 2.03 per cent on Friday tracking a fall on Wall Street over continued uncertainty over a rescue package for US carmakers.

Tokyo  - Stocks in Japan dropped in early trading Friday, dragged down by opposition to the US car industry bail-out plan by conservative lawmakers in the US Senate.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average was down 110.31 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 8,610 at mid-trading, also affected by the yen strengthening against the dollar.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues declined by 6.06 points, or 0.71 per cent, to 843,19.

Indian equities slipped further into the negative zone on the back of heavy selling pressure witnessed in some of the frontliners.

Realty and metal stocks went up, whereas IT and consumer durables stocks led the declines.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained mire than 1 percent each.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Realty zoomed 2.44%, Metal gained 1.25%, while BSE IT declined 3.81%, Consumer Durables lost more than 2.75%.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex started the day with a gain of 24.42 points, at 9,679.32.

Indian Markets opened flat on Thursday. NSE Nifty was down by 3 points at 2926. BSE Sensex was marginally up at 10.07 a.m. IST. Volatility may be higher in days to come and markets will depend largely on International cues.

Reliance Communications was trading strong. The stock was up by nearly 8.8%. At NSE Reliance Communications touched an intraday high of Rs 249.55 and a low of Rs 232 during the early trading session.

Among major gainers were ICICI Bank (up by 2.7%), Sterlite (up by 4%), Zee Entertainment (up by 3.5%) and HDFC Bank (up by 2%).

Major losers included Technology stocks, Wipro, TCS, Satyam, Siemens.

Tokyo  - Japan's Nikkei index slid in early trading Thursday as rising commodity prices dimmed earnings prospects of Japanese companies, while the Topix index gained some ground.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average was down 68.97 points, or 0.79 per cent, at mid-trading, also driven down by emerging opposition in the US Senate to the rescue deal for US carmakers.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues rose 1.98 points, or 0.24 per cent to 836.53.