Asian stock markets began to fall sharply yesterday due to rising oil prices and growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, foreign media reported.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific index fell about 1.8% due to the escalating regional instability, while Japan’s Nikkei index fell by 1% and the TOPIX index fell by a similar amount.
South Korea’s KOSPI index fell by nearly 1.7% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell by about 0.98%.
China, Taiwan and several Southeast Asian markets continued to fall, but the Singapore stock market recorded a slight increase.