Asian stocks closed lower on Tuesday amid the deepening geopolitical crisis in Ukraine, keeping investors on edge.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently recognized Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent entities.
Eventually, he ordered his troops to maintain peace in yesterday’s two breakaway regions. This move triggered fears that it could be a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine.
The United States and European Union highly denounced Putin’s military action.
US President Joe Biden released an executive order to impose sanctions on the pro-Moscow regions in Ukraine. The EU also vowed to give punitive actions to the separatist areas.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index led losses regionally, ending 2.69% lower to 23,520.00 points.
Shares of e-commerce giant Alibaba sharply lost 3.05% to $14.28 per share.
This downturn came after Chinese regulators asked banks and state firms to report exposure to Ant Group.
The financial company owned China’s largest digital payment platform Alipay and was an affiliate of Alibaba Group.
It has been under a sweeping restructuring by the Beijing government.
Other Hong-kong listed technology firms also followed the pullback of Asian stocks.
Gaming titan Tencent shed 0.13% to $57.00 per share. Then, heavyweight food delivery firm Meituan plunged 5.10% to $21.95 per share.
Correspondingly, the Hang Seng Tech index slashed 2.27% to 5.17 points.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite dipped 0.96% to 3,457.15 points in mainland China.
At the bottom of the index, advertising media company Hylink slumped 8.20% to $3.50 per share.
In addition, the Shenzhen Component index declined 1.29% to 13,297.11 per share.
Beijing Dataway Horizon, an IT business, fell 10.89% to $9.47 per share.
Asian Stocks Skid; Nikkei 225 Down 1.71%
Japanese shares also registered losses in Asian stocks, with the Nikkei 225 index down 1.71% to 26,449.61 points.
Its worst performer, K Line, a transport company, slipped 6.96% to $61.69 per share.
Following the negative trend, automobile manufacturers Nissan and Mitsubishi declined. The carmakers were down 6.02% to $4.89 and 5.85% to $2.66 per share, respectively.
At the same time, the benchmark TOPIX index weakened 1.55% to 1,881.08 points.
In South Korea, the KOSPI dropped 1.35% to 2,706.79 points.
Eventually, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index dwindled 1.00% to $7,161.30 points.
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