Taking A Tumble On Geopolitical Volatility

Major regional equity indices trade sharply lower at writing, failing to recover from losses observed earlier in the Asia-Pac session. The region-wide decline was facilitated by worry over a well-documented fire at the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant (with Ukraine pointing to Russian shelling of the facility), spurring risk-off moves that saw high-beta stocks across various sectors again struggle on the day. Containment of the fire to an administrative building at the Ukrainian nuclear facility failed to provide a notable boost to the space.

• The Hang Seng leads losses, printing 2.7% worse off, on track for a third straight week of declines. China-based tech stocks bore the brunt of the selling, with steep declines witnessed in large caps Alibaba (-4.9%), Meituan (-7.1%), and Tencent (-3.8%). The Hang Seng Tech index correspondingly deals 4.1% weaker at typing, notching a fresh all-time low (its inception came in Jul ’20).
• The CSI300 is on track to close lower for a third consecutive day, sitting 0.9% weaker at typing. Losses in the richly valued consumer discretionary and consumer staples sub-indices continue to weigh on the index, with steep declines again seen in large Chinese liquor stocks such as Kweichow Moutai (-2.4%) and Wuliangye Yibin Co (-2.5%).
• The ASX200 fell to a lesser extent than the remainder of the major regional indices, closing 0.8% lower. The index snapped a five-day streak of gains, with major crude benchmarks operating a little shy of their cycle highs
• U.S. e-mini equity index futures sit 0.7% to 0.9% lower into European hours.