Asian stock markets traded mostly lower on Friday, May 15, with South Korea’s Kospi emerging as the worst-performing index in the region, falling more than 7% during intraday trade. Japan’s Nikkei also declined sharply, while Hong Kong and Chinese indices remained under pressure amid broad-based weakness across regional equities.
At 11:45 AM IST, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 568.17 points, or 7.12%, to 7,413.24, marking the steepest decline among major Asian indices. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 1,681.23 points, or 2.68%, to 60,972.82.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 538.21 points, or 2.04%, to 25,850.83. China-linked equities also remained weak, with the Shanghai Composite falling 1.35% and the Shenzhen index down 1.63%.
Taiwan markets were also under pressure, with the Taiwan Weighted Index declining 579.39 points, or 1.39%, to 41,172.36. Singapore’s STI index slipped 0.37%, while Thailand’s SETI index traded 0.82% lower.
Among other regional markets, Australia’s ASX 200 edged down 0.18%, New Zealand’s NZX 50 declined 0.46%, and Malaysia’s benchmark index fell 0.35%.
Indian equities, however, showed relative resilience despite volatility in broader Asian markets. The Nifty 50 traded at 23,699.65, up 10.05 points or 0.04%, though the index pared most of its earlier gains amid weak regional sentiment.