China’s benchmark CSI 300 index entered bear market territory on Thursday, dropping 2 per cent to just over 4,000 points and falling 20 per cent since June, underscoring fragile investor confidence. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost more than 3 per cent, with Alibaba down 6 per cent after a Beijing regulator urged tighter product quality standards for ecommerce platforms. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 slipped 2.5 per cent, led by SoftBank, which shed over 6 per cent and is now nearly half its June level.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 4 per cent, extending its monthly decline past 20 per cent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped more than 1.5 per cent toward its lowest close since late July. Rising oil prices added pressure, with Brent crude up 2 per cent to about $111 a barrel. Wall Street was set for a lower open, with Nasdaq futures down 1.3 per cent and S&P 500 futures 0.7 per cent lower.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) summoned major ecommerce platforms, including JD.com, Taobao, Tmall, Pinduoduo, and Douyin, urging stricter enforcement of product-quality standards. The regulator cited risks from counterfeit goods, misleading advertising, and the complexity of live-stream shopping and social commerce. CATL fell another 7 per cent in Hong Kong after a 12 per cent drop the previous day following disappointing third-quarter results.
However, cybersecurity firm Trend Micro rose over 8 per cent as Japanese firms and the government scrambled to address security flaws in the widely used PHP programming language.
Source: Financial Times Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing