Hong Kong stocks led losses in Asia Pacific on Friday after Wall Street tumbled overnight on rate worries, while investors also digested inflation data from Japan.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index retreated 457.11 points, or 1.2%, to 38,646.11.
Investors assessed April inflation from Japan for clues on the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy moves.
Japan’s core inflation — which strips out fresh food and energy — eased to 2.2% from 2.6% in March, in line with expectations. Headline inflation slowed to 2.5%, down from March’s 2.7% figure.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index dropped 259.77 points, or 1.4%, to 18,608.94.
Korean indexes dwindled, dragged by heavyweight Samsung Electronics, Heavyweight chipmaker Samsung shares fell 3.07% after Reuters reported that the South Korean tech giant’s latest high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips are not yet ready for use by U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 sagged 40.31 points, or 1.1%, to 3,601.48.
Shares of Chinese video-streaming site Bilibili plunged as much as 12% on Friday after the firm reported a wider loss for the first quarter.
Net losses widened to 764.6 million yuan, compared with 629.6 million yuan in the same period of 2023, while adjusted net losses narrowed 56% year on year to 455.9 million yuan.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi index lost 34.21 points, or 1.3%, to 2,687.60.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index dipped 6.06 points, or 0.2%, to 3,316.56.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index shed 42.09 points, or 0.2%, to 21,565.34.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 index subtracted 26.09 points, or 0.2%, to 11,783.40.
In Australia, the ASX 200 ditched 84.21 points, or 1.1%, to 7,727.59.
