SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific fell during Tuesday morning trade after heavy losses overnight on Wall Street that saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropping more than 4%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 1.88% as shares of Fast Retailing declined more than 1%. The Topix index traded 1.75% lower.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped more than 2% while the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia fell 2.33%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.76% lower.
Technology shares in Asia-Pacific declined in Tuesday morning trade, largely mirroring losses after the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.29% overnight to 11,623.25.
On Tuesday morning, shares of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group fell 2.75%. South Korea’s Kakao shed 1.31% while Krafton fell 1.99%.
Other major indexes on Wall Street also saw substantial losses, with the S&P 500 slipping 3.2% to 3,991.24 — falling below the 4,000 level for the first time in more than a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 653.67 points, or 1.99%, to 32,245.70.
Currencies and oil
The Japanese yen traded at 130.38 per dollar, stronger as compared with levels above 130.5 seen against the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.6953, struggling to recover after last week’s drop from above $0.72.
Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipping 0.41% to $105.51 per barrel. U.S. crude futures shed 0.29% to $102.79 per barrel.
