Several Asian markets suffered declines Thursday in the wake of a sell-off on Wall Street, led by financials such as Macquarie Group in Sydney, Kookmin Bank in Seoul and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Stock markets in Japan were closed Thursday for a holiday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index led the decline, skidding 673.24 points, or 2.4 percent, to 26,887.28. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index sank 3.4 percent to 15,464.66.
In Hong Kong, despite the sharp decline for the broad market, shares of Tsingtao Brewery soared 9.3 percent, while shares of China Communications Services Corp. gained 0.5 percent.
Shares of Air China sank 7.8 percent and China Eastern Airlines skidded 11.1 percent in Hong Kong on speculation that China Eastern's proposed stake sale to Singapore Airlines may be completed.
Shares of Singapore Airlines dropped 0.6 percent in Singapore, Qantas gave up 0.2 percent in Sydney and China Airlines stock lost 0.7 percent in Taipei.
Financials paced losses following the overnight weakness on Wall Street, with shares of Macquarie Group dropping 4.3 percent in Sydney, HSBC Holdings dropping 1.1 percent in Hong Kong, Kookmin Bank shedding 0.5 percent in Seoul and ICICI Bank skidding 3 percent in Mumbai.
In Shanghai, shares of the country's largest lender, ICBC, gave up 0.3 percent, while in Hong Kong, ICBC's stock sank 6.3 percent.
In Sydney, shares of oil producer Woodside Petroleum advanced 1.6 percent and Oil Search gained 3.3 percent, while in Mumbai shares of market heavyweight ONGC jumped 2.9 percent despite a weak market.
ELSEWHERE:
MUMBAI: India's Sensitive index fell 0.7 percent to 20,331.90.
SHANGHAI: China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.9 percent to 5,319.86.
SINGAPORE: The Straits Times Index gave up 1.9 percent at 3,397.06.
TAIPEI: Taiwan's Weighted Index slid 1.7 percent to 8,184.20.
SEOUL: South Korea's Kospi ended little changed at 1,852.73.
SYDNEY: Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1 percent to 6,290.70.
WELLINGTON: New Zealand's NZX 50 index slipped 0.2 percent to 4,033.93.
with files from other wire services
