Pedestrians cross a street in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on February 8, 2023.
Philip Fong | Afp | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets dropped on Thursday, but largely pared losses as the trading day went on as turmoil around Credit Suisse added onto banking fears in the region.
Shares of Credit Suisse plunged to a new all-time low Wednesday for the second consecutive day after its top investor ruled out further assistance.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 1.89%, leading losses in the region, and the Hang Seng Tech index lost 1.43%.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite closed 1.12% lower at 3,226.89, and the Shenzhen Component saw a larger loss at 1.54% to end at 11,237.7.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.46% to close at 6,965.5, dragged by miners and the banking sector. Investors also digested unemployment numbers, which came in at 3.5% in February.
In Japan, the Topix fell 1.17% to end at 1,937.1 on Thursday as the country saw its trade data for February come in lower than expected. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% to finish at 27,010.61.
South Korea’s Kospi also fell marginally to end at 2,377.91, but the Kosdaq bucked the wider trend and closed 0.1% higher at 781.98.
Overnight in the US, major indexes ended largely lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.9% and the S&P 500 shedding 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite eked out a small gain, rising 0.05%.
—CNBC’s Alex Harring, John Melloy and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
