The imposition of Chinese monetary tightening combined with poor company forecasts to give stocks in the region their worst day for two months and extend falls to a seventh session, the longest losing streak in more than two years.
The FTSE Asia-Pacific index dropped 1.8 per cent to 227.32 yesterday, its biggest fall since Dubai World's debt crisis rocked markets at the end of November.
“The correction is likely to carry on,” said Zhang Xiuqi, a Shanghai-based strategist at China International Fund Management. “Investors have begun to re-evaluate their previous projections for earnings growth as the [Chinese] government's tightening has come faster than expected.”