Asian markets moved sharply lower on Wednesday, falling for a second consecutive session as traders digested losses at Alcoa and Daiwa Securities. Alcoa, the world’s largest aluminum producer, posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss of $497m while Daiwa warned it would report an annual loss after booking a Y17.4bn ($173m) decline in the value of its securities holdings. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was trading more than 2 per cent lower by lunchtime in Tokyo, as all markets expect the Philippines declined.
Asian markets (Wed)
04:30 BST
Nikkei down 174.22 (-1.97%) at 8,658.63
Topix down 19.01 (0.02%) at 813.59
Hang Seng down 555.51 (-3.74%) at 14,370.46
US markets (Tue)
S&P500 down 19.93 (-2.39%) at 815.55
DJIA down -186.29 (-2.34%) at 7789.56
Nasdaq down 45.10 (-2.81%) at 1561.61.
European markets (Tue)
FTSE100 down 63.02 (-1.58%) at 3,930.52
Eurofirst 300 down 5.40 (-0.70%) at 760.69
Currencies
04:25 BST
€/$ 1.3196 (1.3360)
$/¥ 100.12 (100.64)
£/$ 1.4684 ( 1.4680)
Commodities
04:05 BST
Brent Crude (ICE) down $0.54 at $50.68
Light Crude (Nymex) down $0.95 at $48.20
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up $2.60 at $885.90
Copper (Comex) up -$1.80 at $197.20
10-year government bond yields (%)
04:10 BST
US 2.88 (2.90)
UK 3.23 ( 3.45)
Germany 3.23 (3.23)
Japan 1.44 (1.46)
Sources: FT, Bloomberg