Asian Shares Skid, Track Decline On Wall St

Bangkok: Shares retreated Friday in Asia, with benchmarks in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea falling more than 2 per cent after Wall Street indexes fell sharply on doubts over the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. President Donald Trump’s decision to push ahead with 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and to double tariffs on Chinese products to 20 per cent also left investors reeling. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 3.4 per cent to 36,939.89, pulled lower by plunging prices for shares in technology companies. Computer chip test equipment maker Advantest sank 9.4 per cent, Disco Corp., another equipment maker, lost 11.1 per cent and Tokyo Electron shed 5.3 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 2.3 per cent to 23,175.49, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9 per cent to 3,358.28. South Korea’s Kospi gave up 3.2 per cent to 2,538.07. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.1 per cent to 8,174.10.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 sank 1.6 per cent to 5,861.57 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4 per cent to 43,239.50.