Stock markets across Asia fell on Friday following falls overnight on Wall Street as investors worried about an end to US interest rate cuts and a slowdown in the American economy. The Asian exchanges recorded falls of 2-3%. This report from Chris Hogg:

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The country's mega bankswere hit hardest: shares in the top three Japanese banks all fell by around six percent.

There was no panic though. Thursday had seen Japanese stocks rise to their highest close in a fortnight and some saw this simply as an adjustment - the market unloading shares that may have risen too high too quickly.

It's a pattern we've seen several times this year so far - record highs followed by sharp drops. Across Asia, excluding Japan, share values have risen by about forty-five percent since early January.

Chris Hogg, BBC News, Tokyo

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drop on Wall Street
a sharp fall in share prices in the United States

spooked the markets
this means that the markets (in Asia) became alarmed (by the sudden fall of the main American stock markets)

close
here, the value of shares at the end of a day of trading

mega banks
major/biggest and most important banks

were hit hardest
suffered the most, were affected the most

There was no panic
here, the situation on the markets remained relatively stable

Thursday had seen Japanese stocks rise
on Thursday Japanese stocks rose/gained value

an adjustment
a slight change that happened in order to better reflect the current financial situation

unloading shares
selling off shares

a pattern
a regularly repeated sequence of events

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