Japanese stock markets records major falls

Lola Evans
19 Jan 2022, 18:58 GMT+10

Stocks in Asia were mixed on Wednesday.
Higher interest rates, exacerbated by a rise in inflation in the UK to a three-decade high saw sellers out in force.
Chinese markets were less impacted with the key Hong Kong index in fact managing a rise.

SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia were mixed on Wednesday. The biggest move was the Japanese market which saw its benchmark index fall nearly three percent.

Higher interest rates, exacerbated by a rise in inflation in the UK to a three-decade high saw sellers out in force in Australia and Japan.

Chinese markets were less impacted with the key Hong Kong index in fact managing a rise.

The Nikkei 225 in Toyko fared worse, shedding 790.02 points or 2.80 percent to 27,467.23.

The Australian All Ordinaries dropped 79.20 points or 1.02 percent to 7,656.60.

China's Shanghai Composite dipped 11.73 points or 0.33 percent to 3,558.18.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng advanced 15.07 points or 0.06 percent to 24,127.85.

The U.S. dollar held on to recent gains for the most part but gave up ground to the commodity currencies.

The euro edged down to 1.1335. The British pound weakened a tad to 1.3595. The Japanese yen inched up to 114.45. The Swiss franc was little changed at 0.9157.

The Canadian dollar rose to 1.2496. The Australian dollar strengthened to 0.7192. The New Zealand dollar rose slightly to 0.6788.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived 543.34 points, or 1.51 percent, to 35,368.47.

The Standard and Poor's 500 gave up 85.74 points, or 1.84 percent, to 4,577.11.

The Nasdaq Composite slumped 386.86 points, or 2.6 percent, to 14,506.90.

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