Asian stocks declined sharply on Wednesday, with Japan leading losses on a firmer yen and a selloff overnight on Wall Street.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index returned from holiday to ditch 424.06 points, or 2.9%, to 14,033.45, while the yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar as the dollar bought ¥101.502 from ¥101.678 in the previous day.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong lost 183.23, or 0.8%, to 23,003.64
Some of major movers include Japanese tech giant SoftBank Corp. plunging 5.1%, Renesas Electronics Corp. sliding 4.5%, Olympus Corp. falling 3.5%, and Panasonic Corp. losing 3.4%.
Hong Kong-listed tech stocks were also weak, with Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings dropping 3.8%, and software provider Kingsoft Corp. falling 7.6%.
Property developers and casinos fell broadly in Hong Kong. Among the top decliners, Shimao Property Holdings dropped by 6%, and Vanke Property (Overseas) pulled back 5.7%.
Macau casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment gave up 4.1%, and both Galaxy Entertainment Group and MGM China Holdings were off 3.4%.
CHINA
The downward revision to HSBC’s China manufacturing PMI dragged down Hong Kong stocks earlier this week, and now it turns out that HSBC’s services PMI is also on the decline.
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Composite dropped 20.01 points, or 0.9%, to 2,137.32
The April report, released earlier Wednesday, showed the headline number falling to 51.4 from March’s 51.9, though remaining above the 50 level separating expansion from contraction.
The details weren’t great either, with the employment sub-index hitting a seven-month low to stand just above the 50 mark.
In other markets;
Taiwan’s Taiex Index backtracked 19.17 points, or 0.2%, to 8,893.22
Korea’s Kospi index fell 19.56 points, or 1%, to 1,939.88
The Singapore Straits Times Index subtracted 9.13 points, or 0.3%, to 3,236.43
New Zealand NZX 50 index bucked the trend and surged 14.23 points, or 0.3%, to 5,189.13
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dumped 45.60 points, or 0.8%, to 5,435.77
