Japan, ROK stocks slump on Wednesday

Japan's key stock index, the Nikkei 225 index, finished at 50,212.27, closing down 2.5 percent on Wednesday,

The index plunged 1,284.93 points from Tuesday, after losing more than 2,400 points in the morning.

Among the 33 industry sectors in the Nikkei, the machinery and telecommunications sectors saw significant declines.

Analysts said the main reason for the decline was the drag from the U.S. stock market.

"I think it's a real shame. The market had already risen above 50,000 points. I thought it would continue to rise. The fluctuations were drastic. It would be great if it could stay at a high level," said a stock trader in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, the Korean won closed at 1,449.4 won to the U.S. dollar in Seoul's foreign exchange market yesterday, a drop of 0.79 percent, reaching a new closing low in nearly seven months.

Similar to the Japanese stock market, Republic of Korea (ROK)'s market also fluctuated and weakened throughout the day on Wednesday.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) sank 2.85 percent to 4,004.42 on Wednesday, with more than 90 percent of sectors closed lower.

The won-dollar exchange rate in the Seoul foreign exchange market closed at 1,449.4 Korean won on Wednesday, falling by 0.79 percent and hitting a record low in nearly seven months.

China's software and information technology services industry saw a rapid expansion in the first two months of this year, reporting double-digit growth in terms of revenues, official data showed Tuesday.

In the January-February period, the total revenue of the software sector rose 11.7 percent year on year to more than 2.15 trillion yuan (about 311.83 billion U.S. dollars), while the total profits climbed 7.3 percent to 269.3 billion yuan, according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Software exports increased by 12.7 percent on a yearly basis.

Software products registered steady growth in revenue in the two months, accounting for 21.9 percent of the industry's total revenue. Information technology services maintained double-digit growth and raked in roughly 1.45 trillion yuan in revenue, taking up 67.2 percent of the industry's total revenue.