Asia’s stock exchanges react with losses to the US price drop

Tokyo The heavy losses on the US stock exchanges also depressed the mood in Asia’s largest stock market, Japan, on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 index, which reflects Japan’s 225 largest stocks, fell by around 1.9 percent to 26,400 points after the lunch break. At the start of trading, it was still 2.8 percent below the closing price of the previous day. The broader Topix of the Tokyo Stock Exchange also lost around 1.4 percent, after more than two percent at the start.

Other markets in the region also reacted: South Korea’s Kospi index fell by 1.2 percent to 2,594 points by midday, Australia’s ASX200 by 1.6 percent, Singapore’s Straits Times index by 1.4 percent at times. The latter recovered over the course of the day to losses of 0.4 percent.