The stock exchange in Japan closed much lower on Thursday. The other important stock market indicators in the Asian region also showed severe drawbacks.
Investors coped with the sell-off on Wall Street, where the mood was weighed down by comments from US central bank president Jerome Powell that the economic outlook is very uncertain.
The Nikkei in Tokyo ended with a minus of 1.5 percent at 28,197.42 points. In particular, the technology companies were sold, following the heavy price losses in the American tech sector.
Chip companies such as Advantest, Alps Alpine and Renesas Electronics fell to 6 percent. Tech investor SoftBank, a heavyweight on the Japanese stock market, lost more than 3 percent.
Apple’s Asian suppliers showed a mixed picture, despite a record quarter for the American iPhone maker. Japanese Murata Manufacturing fell 4 percent and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC lost 2 percent. LG Display won 1.5 percent in South Korea.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 1.8 percent in the meantime. Cathay Pacific plummeted nearly 9 percent in Hong Kong. The airline announced that it wanted to raise money with the issue of a convertible bond loan.
The main index in Shanghai lost 1.5 percent, and the Kospi in Seoul lost 1.6 percent. The Australian All Ordinaries in Sydney were lowered by 1.9 percent.
