Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday, following overnight losses on Wall Street, as shares in Japan, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland struggled for gains.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 89.67 points, or 0.3%, to 29,598.66,
The Japanese yen changed hands at 114.10 U.S. per dollar.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng plummeted 330.36 points, or 1.3%, to 25,319.72.
Some of the major tech names listed in Hong Kong declined sharply: Alibaba was down 5.3%, Meituan fell 2.5%, JD was down 3.6%, Tencent declined 2.4% and Baidu fell 7.8%.
A day earlier, Baidu reported third-quarter revenue above market expectations. But the company warned that ad spending had been affected by a slowdown in China’s economic growth. Baidu makes most of its revenue from advertising.
Australian shares bucked the generally downward trend as the index gained ground. But the energy sector fell amid a selloff in crude futures.
Oil plays like Santos, Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum fell more than 1% each.
The country’s so-called Big Four banks were also under pressure: Shares of ANZ closed down 1.3%, Commonwealth Bank declined 1.6%, Westpac lost 1% and the National Australia Bank was down 0.7%.
The Australian dollar rose 0.21% to $0.7281.
In other markets
In China, the CSI 300 unloaded 48.13 points, or 1%, to 4,837.62.
In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 77.33 points, or 0.4%, to 17,841.37
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index regained 4.34 points, or 0.1%, to 3,237.02
In Korea, the Kospi index dropped 15.04 points, or 0.5%, to 2,947.38
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 lost 37.07 points, or 0.3%, to 12,800.33.
In Australia, the ASX 200 recovered 9.27 points, or 0.1%, at 7,379.20.
