Stocks in Asia were lower on Friday morning after China’s GDP growth for the third quarter of 2018 came in below expectations.
The Greater China markets continued to slide in the morning, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling by 0.96 percent. Over on the mainland, the Shanghai composite sliding 0.7 percent and the Shenzhen composite declined by around 0.92 percent.
The moves came following a selloff in the mainland Chinese markets during the previous session, with the Shanghai seeing its lowest point since November 2014 on Thursday morning.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell by around 1 percent in morning trade, while the Topix declined by 1.05 percent.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi traded lower by 0.44 percent.
The ASX 200 saw a partial recovery but remained lower by 0.31 percent in morning trade, as most sectors trended lower.
China released its GDP figures for the third quarter of 2018, which showed economic growth slowing to 6.5 percent year-over-year.
The latest GDP announcement by the world’s second-largest economy missed expectations for a 6.6 percent in the quarter from July to September compared to a year earlier, according to analysts polled by Reuters. That is the weakest pace since the first quarter of 2009.”
“The combination of slower global economic growth, ongoing US-China geopolitical/trade concerns and the increased likelihood the FOMC raises the funds rate by more than is currently discounted (75bps over the next 12 months) is weighing on investment sentiment,” Elias Haddad, senior currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a morning note, referring to the Federal Open Market Committee.
Overnight on Wall Street, stocks saw steep declines and continued their generally poor performance for the month of October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 327.23 points to 25,379.45, while the S&P 500 slipped by 1.4 percent to 2,768.78 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 2.1 percent to close at 7,485.14.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, surged by 15.29 percent to 20.06 on Thursday. Last week, the index saw its highest level since February. The VIX measures implied volatility on S&P 500 index options.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 95.946 in the morning following an overnight rally from above the 95.6 mark.
The Japanese yen was at 112.30 against the dollar after strengthening from levels above 112.5 yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7101, following a decline from levels above 0.714 overnight.
In the oil markets, prices saw an increase in the morning of Asian trade. The global benchmark Brent crude futures contract rose by 0.45 percent at $79.65 per barrel, while the U.S. crude futures contract saw gains of 0.44 percent at $68.95 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Huileng Tan, Yen Nee Lee and Reuters contributed to this report.
