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 dropped nearly 2%. 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 4.9%. South Korea’s Kakao shed 2.38% while Krafton fell 2.39%.
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 U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 103.693 — off levels above 103.8 seen recently.
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.
