Japanese and Chinese markets targeted by sellers, stocks tumble

Lola Evans
04 Mar 2021, 16:49 GMT+10

Most of the major indices in Asia tumbled more than two percent on Thursday.
The only bourse to register a more modest loss was the Australian market.
"The decline in the Nasdaq index has a big impact on today's market."

SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Most of the major indices in Asia tumbled more than two percent on Thursday.

The only bourse to register a more modest loss was the Australian market.

"The decline in the Nasdaq index has a big impact on today's market. That has prompted investors to sell shares, particularly index heavyweights," Hideyuki Suzuki, general manager at investment research at SBI Securities told the Reuters Thomson news agency Thursday.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dived 628.99 points or 2.13 percent to 28,930.11.

In Australia, the All Ordinaries fell 67.30 points or 0.95 percent to 7,000.60.

Hong Kong's Sang Seng sank 643.63 points or 2.15 percent to close at 29,236.79.

China's Shanghai Composite declined 73.41 points or 2.05 percent to 3,503.49.

The U.S. dollar steamed ahead, knocking the euro down to 1.2058 by the Sydney close Thursday. The British pound edged down to 1.3957. The Japanese yen slumped to 107.10. The Swiss franc fell to 0.9193.

The Canadian dollar was friendless at 1.2643. The Australian dollar fell only modestly to 0.7802. The New Zealand dollar slipped to 0.7263.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite shed 361.04 points or 2.70 percent, to close at 12,997.75.

The Dow Jones gave up 121.43 points or 0.39 percent to 31,270.09.

The Standard and Poor's 500 eased 50.56 points or 1.31 percent to 3,819.73.

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