Asia Pacific Shares Plunge after Wall Street Rout; Aussie Shares Plummet Over 3%

The major Asia-Pacific stock indexes were pummeled on Friday, with many hitting multi-week lows, after a steep sell-off on Wall Street unnerved investors ahead of a key U.S. jobs report at 12:30 GMT. U.S. indexes marked their biggest one-day plunge since June on Thursday on the back of furious profit-taking, while analysts worry a disappointing non-farm payrolls report could deepen the selling.

In the cash market on Friday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index settled at 23205.43, down 260.10 or -1.11%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished at 24695.45, down 312.15 or -1.25% and South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2368.25, down 27.65 or -1.15%.

China’s Shanghai Index settled at 3355.37, down 29.61 or -0.87% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index finished at 5925.50, down 187.10 or -3.06%.

Tech Stocks in Play

Technology stocks in the Asia Pacific Region followed their U.S. counterparts lower on Friday.

Shares of Apple suppliers in Asia declined, with Sharp and Murata Manufacturing in Japan slipping 0.65% and 1.56%, respectively. Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company also declined 1.61%. AAC Technologies in Hong Kong dropped 2.14%.

Chinese tech stocks listed in Hong Kong also came under pressure. Tech behemoth Alibaba saw its stock in the city drop 3.59% while Tencent also slipped 3% and Meituan Dianping dipped 0.3%. It came as the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.53% on the day to 7,588.02.

Australia Shares See Worst Day in Four Months after Wall Street Tech Rout

Australian shares fell on Friday by their most in four months, after a sharp sell-off in technology stocks sent Wall Street’s main indexes to their worst session since June. For the week, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 2.4%, marking its biggest weekly decline since June 12.

Tech stocks were the hardest hit on the Australian benchmark, falling 5.6% in their biggest daily loss since March 23. Buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay plunged 6.7%, while Xero eased 5.7%.

BHP Group eased 3.8% and dragged miners to a near two-month low as iron ore futures in China snapped a six-session rally.

Financials and healthcare stocks also declined 3% and 3.8%, respectively.

On the data front, Australia’s retail turnover rose 3.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis in July, according to figures released Friday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. That followed the June quarter gross domestic product figures released earlier this week that showed the country officially entering a recession.

Adding to woes, Australia’s Victoria state reported a record 59 deaths on Friday, including previously unrecorded deaths in aged care facilities, while authorities suggested restrictions in the state may remain even after the current six-week lockdown comes to an end.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.