SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific largely fell on Tuesday following overnight losses on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling more than 2%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 2.19% to close at 27,822.12, as shares of Fast Retailing fell 6.92%. The Topix index also declined 1.33% in order to complete the trading trip to 1,947.75. Earlier, the Nikkei had dropped more than 3% and briefly entered correction territory, declining more than 10% off its mid-September high.
South Korea's Kospi shed 1.89% to close at 2,962.17. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong bucked the overall trend regionally as it rose around 0.5%, at the time of its final hour of trading.
Shares in Australia closed lower, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.41% to 7,248.40. The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday announced its decision to leave interest rates unchanged.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.28%.
Markets in mainland China remained closed on Tuesday for the holidays.
Oil rises
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures rising 0.48% to $81.65 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.35% to $77.89 per barrel.
Those gains upward came following the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, agreed Monday to adhere to a current pact to boost oil output by 400,000 barrels each day in November.
Shares of oil companies in Asia-Pacific rose in Tuesday trade, with Beach Energy and Santos in Australia rising 0.7% and 2.54%, respectively. Japan's Inpex rose 5.6% on the afternoon while PetroChina shares in Hong Kong jumped 6.78% in afternoon trade.
Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 dropped 1.3% to 4,300.46 whilst the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 323.54 points to 34,002.92. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.14% to around 14,255.49.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 93.98 after seeing an early on low of 93.807.
The Japanese yen traded at 111.17 per dollar, stronger than levels above 111.1 seen from the greenback yesterday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7271, largely holding on to gains after its rise from below $0.724 late last week.
