Nikkei logged the worst day since the Black Monday crisis in 1987 in Japan
As Asia-Pacific markets carried on with last week's sell-off, Japan's stocks confirmed a bear market on Monday, with the Nikkei 225 and Topix falling more than 12%.
Since July 11, when the benchmark indices reached their highest point ever, they have dropped by over 20%.
The Nikkei suffered its worst day since "Black Monday" in 1987, closing at 31,458.42 after losing 12.4% of its value. Additionally, the index saw its biggest point fall in its history—4,451.28—on the whole.
Additionally, the Nikkei lost all of its gains thus far this year and is now in a losing position.
The all-encompassing Topix likewise had a collapse, closing at 2,227.15 after falling 12.23%.
Heavyweight trading firms lost more than 14% of their market capitalization, including Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Co., Sumitomo, and Marubeni. Mitsui lost about 20% of its market capitalization.
The downturn on Monday comes after Friday's massive losses on Japan's Nikkei 225 and Topix, which dropped more than 5% and 6%, respectively. The Nikkei had its worst day since March 2020, while the Topix as a whole had its lowest day in eight years.
The yen hit its strongest level versus the dollar since January during Monday's trading, closing at 142.09.
The Kospi in South Korea experienced an 8.77% decline, concluding at 2,441.55, while the small-cap Kodaq witnessed an 11.3% collapse, culminating at 691.28.
Trading among the Kospi index was suspended at 2.14 p.m. in Seoul and 1.56 midnight for the Kosdaq due to the extent of the sell-off, which caused the exchanges to trip circuit breakers. A 20-minute break was observed. When stocks move up or down 8%, circuit breakers trip.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 sank 3.7% to 7,649.6, while Taiwan's benchmark index, the Taiwan Weighted Index, was down almost 8%, led by tech and real estate sectors.
Monday marks the start of the Reserve Bank of Australia's two-day monetary policy meeting. According to Reuters polled economists, the central bank will keep interest rates at 4.35%, but markets will be watching the monetary policy announcement to see if the RBA is still thinking about raising rates.
While mainland China's CSI 300 saw the smallest loss in Asia, down 1.21% to 3,343.32, the Hong Kong Hang Seng index was down 1.62% as of the last hour of trading.
The U.S. stock market saw a steep decline on Friday due to concerns about the economy possibly entering a recession following a much weaker-than-expected jobs report for July. The Nasdaq was the first of the three major benchmarks to enter correction territory, declining over 10% from its record high, while both the S&P 500 and Dow were 2.9 percent and 5.7% below its all-time highs, correspondingly.
