Asian stocks decline following Wall Street slump

Stocks in Asia were lower on Tuesday afternoon following an overnight sell-off on Wall Street sparked by concerns of a slowdown in the global economy.

The mainland Chinese markets fell by the end of the morning session. The Shanghai composite slipped 1.09 percent and the Shenzhen composite was lower by 1.314 percent. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index declined by 0.90 percent.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.62 percent in afternoon trade while the Topix index declined by 1.66 percent. Shares of industry heavyweight Fast Retailing fell almost 2 percent.

Over in South Korea, the Kospi slipped 0.42 percent as shares of chipmaker SK Hynix declined by 1.45 percent.

The ASX 200 in Australia also fell and was lower by about 1 percent, with almost all sectors seeing losses.

Shares of major miners in Australia largely recovered after earlier seeing losses. Rio Tinto traded up by 0.13 percent and BHP Billiton saw gains of 0.22 percent. Fortescue Metals Group, however, slipped 1.32 percent.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.043 after touching an earlier high above 97.4.

The Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe-haven currency, traded at 112.51 against the dollar after seeing lows around the 113.5 handle in the previous session. The Australian dollar was at $0.7188 after seeing an earlier low of $0.7170.

Source: CNBC

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