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A wave of sales hit Asian stocks on Thursday, following sharp declines in the United States, threatening to expel South Korea's technological benchmark in the bear market.
Movements took place after falling tech stocks in New York on Wednesday, reversing the gains of the year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S & P 500.
All major markets fell Thursday in Asia. Japan's Nikkei 225 recorded the largest decline, down 3.9%, its lowest level in more than six months.
South Korea's Kospi fell 2.2%, dropping to around 21% since January 29, its highest level this year. If the index closes around these levels, it will enter a bear market, defined as a fall of more than 20% from a recent high.
In doing so, he would join the indexes of Mainland China and Hong Kong. This is a striking illustration of the seriousness of concerns over increased trade between the United States and China and the ability of emerging markets to resist higher rates in the United States that have affected Asia. .
The United States and China have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars of reciprocal merchandise, darkening the outlook for a wide range of economies that are heavily involved in global supply chains, including Taiwan and Korea from South. This month, the International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast this year and the following year, partly because of trade protectionism.
The October collapse of global equities marked a turning point compared to September, while many indices had risen. Investors apparently also lost the belief that a strong US economy was enough to isolate it from the gloom elsewhere.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell to its lowest level in six months on Thursday.
Photo:
Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press
"It seems like people are finally coming to the question of whether the US is very different from global markets," said Felix Lam, portfolio manager at BNP Paribas Asset Management. "We are still quite global," he said, adding that trade tensions would also affect the United States.
Shares of Asian tech companies fell sharply.
Japan's electronics and entertainment group Sony Corp. lost more than 5%, while the industrial robot manufacturer Fanuc Corp. fell 4.1%. In South Korea, shares of Samsung Electronics Co. fell 3.8%, reaching their lowest level in a year and a half. The market value of the country's largest company is concerned about sales of memory chips and smartphones.
Hong Kong-listed Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. lost 3.2%. At night, US stocks of its rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., listed in the United States, sold 4.8%, while the US deposit certificates of small Chinese technology companies such as NetEase Inc. and Ctrip.com International Ltd.
The BNR Mellon China Select ADR index of BNY Mellon China Select is even wider this month, which includes a 4.1% drop on Wednesday.
Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at [email protected] and Ben Eisen at [email protected]
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