Stocks in Asia closed lower on Friday as U.S.-North Korea geopolitical tensions came to the fore once again, keeping the demand for safe haven assets intact.
Japanese markets were shuttered for holiday
The Hang Seng Index plummeted 560.49 points, or 2%, to 26,883.51
Korean markets fell, driven by losses in major tech and retail stocks. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix closed down 2.8% and 4.7% respectively, while department store operator Shinsegae tumbled 9.5%.
Offshore investors sold 287.1 billion won ($251.5 million U.S.) in Kospi-listed stocks in the previous session, the Korean Herald reported, with the information technology sector taking the brunt of the selloff.
Australian markets fell hard, driven by broad-based losses across most sub-indexes although gold stocks climbed. The heavily-weighted financials sub-index was 1.3% lower.
After previously warning of "fire and fury" if North Korea persisted in threatening the U.S., President Donald Trump said Thursday his statement "wasn't tough enough." While he did not comment on what he meant by that statement, Trump said that North Korea should be "very, very nervous" if it "(did) anything in terms of even thinking about an attack."
Demand for the Japanese yen remained supported, with the U.S. dollar extending losses made in the Thursday session. The Japanese currency last traded at 109.21 yen to the dollar, off a high of 108.88 yen seen earlier in the session but still stronger than levels around the 110 handle seen earlier this week.
In corporate news, Noble Group announced a net loss of $1.9 billion U.S. in the first half of 2017. Noble has been forced to shuffle management, sell down assets and slash costs to boost liquidity. Despite the losses, Noble shares were up 22.9%
Also of note, Japan's SoftBank Group has invested almost $2.5 billion U.S. in India-based e-commerce player Flipkart. The funding will come from SoftBank's Vision Fund in the form of share purchases.
Among market movers during the session, Hong Kong-listed Tencent stock was down 4.1% following news that Chinese regulators were investigating the company for cyber-security violations. Other Chinese internet companies involved in the probe were New York-listed Baidu and Sina.
Also in Hong Kong, shares of rail operator MTR Corporation fell 3.6% after the company announced first-half net profit rose 46.1% from the year before.
In economic news, second-quarter Singapore GDP growth was revised upwards to 2.2% compared to the previous quarter, above an earlier estimate of 0.4% growth. The figure reflected a 2.9% rise compared to one year ago.
In other markets
The CSI 300 dropped 68.57 points, or 1.9%, to 3,647.35
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell 43.52 points, or 1.3%, to 3,279.72
In Taiwan, the Taiex index lost 0.17 points to 10,329.57
In Korea, the Kospi index ditched 39.76 points, or 1.7%, to 2,319.71
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 let go of 70.6 points, or 0.9%, to 7,719.11
In Australia, the ASX 200 slid 67.79 points, or 1.2%, to 5,693.14
