Asian stocks markets plunged Friday as fallout spread from global market turmoil set off by concerns about credit weakness in the United States.

The Nikkei 225 index dropped 406.51 points, or 2.37 per cent, to close at 16,764.09 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Hong Kong’s markets were forced to close early due to a typhoon warning today.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. terminated trading in the securities and derivatives markets in the early afternoon (2:45 pm) local time, due to the hoisting of Typhoon Signal no. 8.

When the markets closed they were down 2.9%.

Australia’s benchmark index finished down 3.7%.

The plunge came after the Dow Jones industrial average fell 387.18, or 2.83%, to 13,270.68 in New York on Thursday after a French bank announced it was freezing funds that invested in U.S. subprime mortgages, deepening fears of a credit crunch.

The Bank of Japan joined its U.S. and European counterparts in pouring cash into money markets to calm growing jitters.

The Japanese central bank said it injected one trillion yen (US$8.39 billion) into money markets to curb rises in a key overnight interest rate.

The injection followed similar moves by its European and U.S. counterparts overnight.

The European Central Bank provided more than US$130 billion to money markets.

The U.S. Federal Reserve also added a larger-than-normal US$24 billion in temporary reserves to the U.S. banking system.