Asian shares drop, yen soars on emerging market anxiety

TOKYO: Asian shares tumbled and the yen rocketed to a seven-week high against the dollar on Monday, driven by fears of a continued flight from emerging markets as tighter credit conditions in China threatened to put the brakes on the world's second-biggest economy.

Japan's Nikkei share average gave up the 15,000-level and dropped 2.5 percent to a two-month low, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.5 percent in early trade after losing more than 1.0 percent on Friday.