Asia shares were tattooed Monday, with markets traveling uniformly down, mimicking Chinese shares.
Markets in Japan were closed Monday.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong collapsed 565.21 points, or 2.8%, to 19,888.50, slipping below the 20,000 threshold for the first time since June 2013.
The Australian dollar fell below 70 U.S. cents again, trading at $0.6969
But a weaker Aussie was not necessarily negative for Australia's economy, experts said, because it could help to offset the lower commodity prices that were hitting local income growth and speed up the economy's re-balancing toward non-mining sectors.
Australian oil stocks Santos, Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum closed down as much as 5.03%.
Miner Rio Tinto shed 3.3%, and rival BHP Billiton lost and 4.9%, while iron ore producer Fortescue saw losses of 4.9%. Iron ore prices were down at $41.50 U.S. a tonne a tonne Friday, for a total 3% decline for the week after rallying for three weeks.
In South Korea, shares of heavyweight Samsung Electronics were down 1.6% after the company missed its profit targets for the fourth quarter of 2015 last week. Other blue chip stocks such as SK Hynix also traded lower.
Shares of Doosan were down 0.5% after the company said its subsidiary sold 305 billion won ($252.71 million U.S.) worth of shares in fighter jet manufacturer Korean Aerospace Industries, according to reports.
CHINA
Chinese markets extended an already rough start to the year Monday, losing further ground after another sell-off in late afternoon trade that sent mainland indexes down more than 5%
The CSI 300 Index faded 169.11 points, or 5%, to 3,192.45
Mainland brokerages suffered steep losses, with shares down as much as 9% at the closing bell. Citic Securities' mainland-listed shares were off 7.01% while its Hong Kong-listed ones fell 3% . Airlines stocks on the mainland traded mixed. Airlines tend to see an earnings boost when oil prices fall.
On Monday the People's Bank of China guided the yuan higher by setting the mid-point fix at 6.5626 against the dollar. On Friday, the midpoint was fixed at 6.5636. The yuan traded at 6.5818 against the dollar.
In China, mainland oil stocks were down between 2.31 and 3.63 percent, while Hong Kong-traded CNOOC, Petrochina, and Sinopec shares had losses of up to 4.9%.
In other markets
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index dropped 42.38 points, or 1.5%, to 2,708.85
The Kospi in Korea slipped 22.78 points, or 1.2%, to 1,894.84
Taiwan’s Taiex index fell 105.55 points, or 1.3%, to 7,788.42
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 dipped 55.27 points, or 0.9%, to 6,102.83
The ASX 200 slumped 58.6 points, or 1.2%, to 4,932.24
