Asian stock markets tumbled and investors scrambled into assets perceived to be safe on nervousness over the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, won overnight by Donald Trump over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton
The Nikkei 225 in Japan collapsed 919.84 points, or 5.4%, at 16,251.54, as the yen, regarded as a safe haven currency, strengthened amid nervousness over the vote. The yen was trading at 102.65 against the U.S. dollar, as of late afternoon, after climbing as high as 105.46 earlier. At the yen's strongest level in Wednesday's session, it was fetching 101.15 per dollar.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong lost 494.28 points, or 2.2%, to 22,415.19
Australian markets saw broad losses across all sub-indexes, except for gold which was up 9.6%.
It was also a historic day for Australia's stock exchange which saw a record of 1.71 million trades on Wednesday. The previous record was 1.53 million last June when the U.K. referendum result was announced.
Some of the biggest losers in the region were oil majors. Australia's Santos which was down 7.5% and Oil Search was 4.9% lower, Japan's Inpex slipped 4.2% while South Korea's S-Oil was down 1%
CHINA
The CSI 300 in Shanghai dropped 18.07 points, or 0.5%, to 3,353.05
China's Shanghai Pechem fell 1.2% and China Petroleum dropped 0.6%
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi closed down 45 points, or 2.3%, at 1,958.38
The Straits Times Index in Singapore subtracted 30.36 points, or 1.1%, to 2,789.88
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index stumbled 274.23 points, or 3%, to 8,943.20
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 moved down 230.15 points, or 3.3%, to 6,664.21
Australia's benchmark ASX 200 moved back 101.23 points, or 1.9%, at 5,156.56
