Japan's Nikkei fell 2 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 2.2 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI declined 1.2 per cent.
The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open sharply lower as indicated by the Nifty Futures traded on Singapore Exchange. The Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange also known as SGX Nifty futures fell 1.47 per cent to 16,269 amid weak global cues as tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Japan's Nikkei fell 2 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 2.2 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI declined 1.2 per cent.
Russian forces shelled Europe’s largest nuclear plant early Friday, sparking a fire as they pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea.
The world’s leading nuclear authorities saw no immediate cause for alarm about damage to the facility, but the assault triggered a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the U.S. Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.
Overnight, stocks fell and oil prices eased back Thursday after another bumpy day of trading on Wall Street as markets remained anxious about the broader impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Major indexes veered up and down for much of the day before a late-day slide pushed them into the red. The S&P 500 shed a 0.7 per cent gain to close 0.5 per cent lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 per cent. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.6 per cent, weighed down by technology stocks, which accounted for a big share of the market’s decline. The pullback left the indexes on pace for weekly losses.
Back home, foreign institutional investors continue to sell shares in Indian markets. On Thursday FIIs sold shares worth Rs 6,644 crore while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 4,799 crore.