Reuters
Asian stock markets posted widespread declines in early trading Tuesday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was in catchup mode after Monday’s holiday and indexes fell around 3%. China Construction Bank , Ping An Insurance and oil giant CNOOC were all down more than 4%, while shipping company Orient Overseas jumped after its $6.3 billion acquisition by China’s Cosco .
Meanwhile, Korea’s Kospi remained in positive territory most of the morning, while Japan’s Nikkei struggled to remain above water and entered the midday break down 0.03%.
Standing out was New Zealand, which barely dropped Monday. The NZX 50 was up 1% and looking to set a record closing high. Australia , too, saw gains.
In China, the Shanghai Composite sank after initial gains, a day after touching two-year lows, while the Shenzhen Composite continued to drop.
Markets in Taiwan , Singapore and Malaysia all fell.