nvestors in Shanghai-listed stocks Wednesday bucked the very trend they'd begun a day earlier, bidding shares well into positive territory, even as other Asian benchmark indexes plunged for a second straight session.
Shanghai's Composite Index gained 3.94% to close at 2881.07, reversing a negative performance in the early part of the morning session. The Shanghai index, which tracks shares listed on the bigger of China's two stock markets, fell 8.8% Tuesday, triggering a global selloff that led to the biggest one-day losses in the U.S. since the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The decline in Shanghai Tuesday followed concerns that the government may introduce additional macro-economic tightening measures to cool speculative activity. On Monday, the Shanghai benchmark ended at an all-time high.
In Tokyo, stocks plunged in the wake of the overnight dive on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 400 points. (See related article.)
The Nikkei 225 stock index fell 515.80 points, or 2.85%, to finish at 17604.12 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Around Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended down 2.46% at 19651.51. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed 2.69% lower at 5832.50. Shares of BHP Billiton fell 5.1%.
South Korea's Kospi Index ended down 2.56% to 1417.34. Singapore's Straits Times Index finished down 3.72% to 3111.94 and New Zealand's NZSX-50 ended 1.5% lower to 4037.12. Markets in Taiwan were closed for a public holiday.
Australia * -2.70%
Hong Kong * -2.46%
India * -4.01%
Indonesia * -1.31%
Japan * -2.85%
Malaysia * -3.91%
Pakistan * -1.74%
Philippines * -7.92%
Singapore * -3.72%
S.Korea * -2.56%
Sri Lanka * -0.45%
Taiwan * 0.02%
Thailand * -1.0
