Asian stocks skid to four-month low, Shanghai shares at two-year low

World
Europe

Shanghai and Hong Kong shares led a sell-off across Asian markets on Tuesday, with Asian stocks sank to a four-month low.

Shanghai shares plunged to nearly two-year low, while Hong Kong stocks shed to a four-month low.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.5 percent to its lowest since early February.

China’s market

Shanghai Stock Exchange /VCG Photo

Chinese stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 3.78 percent at 2907.82 points to its lowest level since mid-2016.

The Shenzhen Component Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, closed 5.31 percent lower at 9414.76 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, dropped 5.76 percent to close at 1547.14 points.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed nearly 3 percent to its lowest level since mid-February, with shares of Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE plunged almost 25 percent to about 1.25 US dollars per share.

The gold price in Hong Kong went down to about 1,528.66 US dollars per tael.

Meanwhile, onshore RMB exchange rate against US dollar closed at 6.4742 to a five-month low.

Other Asian markets

Tokyo Stock Exchange /VCG Photo

Japan's Nikkei dropped 401.85 points, or 1.8 percent, from Monday to close the day at 22,278.48, marking its lowest closing level since June 1.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, dropped 27.51 points, or 1.55 percent, to finish at 1,743.92.

Pulp and paper, air transportation and chemical-oriented issues comprised those that declined the most by the close of play.

Seoul sank 1.5 percent, Singapore slipped 0.1 percent, and Manila lost 1.7 percent. Bangkok and Wellington were also sharply lower. Sydney was marginally down.

(With inputs from news agencies)