Japan’s Nikkei 225 marked its seventh straight day of losses to plunge 3.28%, leading declines among Asian indexes as the region saw a broad selloff after Wall Street tumbled overnight.
In Japan, the index plunged 1,285.34 points, or 3.3%, to 37,869.51, its lowest since April.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index skidded 306.08 points, or 1.8%, to 17,004.97.
Nikkei heavyweight SoftBank Group nosedived 9.39%, while Renesas Electronics led losses in the index, down more than 14%.
The yen also marked a fourth-straight day of strengthening against the U.S. dollar, hitting an 11-week low of 152.28 against the greenback.
Reuters reported that the Bank of Japan is expected to discuss a rate hike at its monetary policy meeting next week on July 30 and 31, as well as detailing a plan to halve its bond buying.
Separately, a Japanese government panel agreed to increase the average minimum hourly wage in the country to 1,054 yen ($6.90), or 5%, NHK reported.
Higher wages offer the Bank of Japan more room to consider a rate increase, as it banks on a “virtuous cycle” of rising prices and wages.
Investors also assessed South Korea’s advance second-quarter GDP numbers, which came in slightly below expectations.
South Korea’s GDP grew 2.3% year on year, lower than the 2.5% expected by economists polled by Reuters. On a quarter on quarter basis, the country’s economy shrank 0.2%, compared to a 0.1% rise expected in the Reuters poll and a reversal from the 1.3% growth seen in the first quarter.
This comes as the company reported an all-time high quarterly revenue of 16.42 trillion won ($11.85 billion U.S.) for its second quarter, marking a gain of 125% from a year ago.
Operating profit came in at 5.47 trillion won, its highest in six years. Net profit stood at 4.12 billion won. Bot
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 dropped 18.9 points, or 0.6%, to 3,399.27.
China’s central bank cut the medium term facility lending rate to 2.3% from 2.5%, in its latest move to stimulate the economy after lowering its loan prime rates on Monday.
In other markets
Trading in Taiwan was suspended due to a typhoon.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index dipped 30.37 points, or 0.9%, to 3,430.45.
In Korea, the Kospi index fell 48.06 points, or 1.7%, to 2,710.65.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 dumped 134.72 points, or 1.1%, to 12,396.27.
In Australia, the ASX 200 docked 102.51 points, or 1.3%, to 7,861.21.
