Asian shares fell on Tuesday as investors turned to safe-haven assets and U.S. futures traded lower after a North Korean missile launch, although major indexes were off session lows by the end of the day.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 87.35 points, or 0.5%, to 19,362.55, after a North Korean missile flew over the country early on Tuesday. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the launch was reckless and unprecedented.
The Hang Seng Index slid 98.28 points, or 0.4%, to 27,765.01
Geopolitical tensions returned to the fore after North Korea launched a ballistic missile that flew over Japan on Tuesday. The missile headed in the direction of the Tohoku region before falling in the sea. The last time a projectile from the hermit state flew over Japan was 2009
Stocks, including blue chips, across sectors sold off, but moderated steeper losses seen earlier in the day: Samsung Electronics closed lower by just 0.04%, LG Electronics shed 2.5% and Hyundai Motor declined 0.4%. Meanwhile, defense stocks surged on the news, with Victek finished up 7.3%. The Korean won also fell almost 1% against the dollar earlier in the session.
In corporate news, Western Digital said it would foot about 150 billion yen ($1.37 billion U.S.) of an approximately two trillion yen bid for Toshiba's memory unit
Western Digital is part of a consortium that also includes Innovation Network Corp of Japan. Toshiba stock closed down 0.3% although shares made gains earlier in the session despite overriding risk-off sentiment in the broader market.
Investors also kept an eye on earnings releases in Australia and Hong Kong, with companies such as Shanghai Fosun Pharma and Postal Savings Bank of China expected to report.
Hong Kong-listed Citic announced Tuesday that first-half profit attributable to shareholders rose 60% to HK$32.3 billion ($4.13 billion U.S.) compared to the previous year. Shares of the company climbed 1.7% by session’s end.
Other market movers included developer Evergrande Group, which saw its stock soar 8.8%. The jump in share price came on the back of Evergrande's Monday announcement that it would cut debt by 2020. The company has the highest net debt ratio compared to other Chinese developers
Meanwhile, the Japanese currency strengthened to trade as high as 108.32 yen to the U.S. dollar — its strongest levels in about four months — compared with levels around the 108.8 handle seen overnight. The yen later gave up some of those gains to trade at 108.77 yen to the dollar
Australian markets were down, with the financials and consumer discretionary sub-indexes leading losses.
In other markets
The CSI 300 lost 8.17 points, or 0.2%, to 3,834.54
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index sank 18.28 points, or 0.6%, to 3,249.34
In Taiwan, the Taiex index retreated 29.41 points, or 0.3%, to 10,496.57
In Korea, the Kospi index gave back 5.56 points, or 0.2%, to 2,364.74
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 backtracked 88.53 points, or 1.1%, to 7,738.34
In Australia, the ASX 200 slipped 40.88 points, or 0.7%, to 5,669.01
