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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Japanese stocks slumped Friday as panic-stricken investors dumped shares across the board after Wall Street stocks suffered deep losses overnight.

The Nikkei tumbled as much as 11.4% -- touching a low of 8,115,41, a level it hasn't seen since May 2003 -- before recovering slightly. The Average was recently down 9.8% at 8,261.85, while the broader Topix index fell 7.2% to 840.18.
"I think people are trying to liquidate positions, but there just aren't any buyers there. It's the nature of the markets that there are very few people willing to buy stocks," said Andrew Sullivan, a sales trader at Main First Securities. "A lot of people sitting on cash are happy to be sitting on cash at the moment."

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 7.4% to 4,004.90 and New Zealand's NZX 50 index gave up 3.5% to 2,842.89. South Korea's Kospi lost 8.7% to 1,182.16.

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