ASIA MIDDAY MOVES | Asian Stocks Slide as US-Iran Strikes Fuel Oil Surge and Global Bond Rout; KOSPI Sinks Near 4%

According to RTHK, HKET and Sina Finance, Asian equities fell broadly at midday Wednesday as fresh US airstrikes on Iran drove oil higher and touched off a global bond selloff, with technology and chip names leading declines. Brent crude extended gains for a second day and the US 10-year Treasury yield hit an intraday 4.81%, near a three-year high. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was among the hardest hit, trading at 64,304.44, down 2.89% or 1,910.90 points as of 12:34 CST, after a morning session that saw it shed 1,742 points. SoftBank slumped 6.08%, Tokyo Electron fell 3.78% and Advantest lost 2.70% as semiconductor shares sold off. Seoul's KOSPI led regional losses, down 3.87% or 264.88 points at 6,570.92 as of 12:34 CST, with Samsung Electronics off 4.21% and SK Hynix down 4.37%. South Korea's August consumer inflation rose to 3.1%, below expectations. Hong Kong stocks pared some losses by the lunch break, with the Hang Seng Index closing the morning down 0.96% at 25,087.22 and the Hang Seng Tech Index off 1.54%. Bilibili fell more than 3%, while Kuaishou, Baidu and NetEase dropped over 2%; Xiaomi bucked the trend, adding 1.09% to HK$27.86. NIO slid 5.22%, gold miner Zhufeng Gold lost more than 5%, and China International Capital Corp fell over 6%. Alibaba eased 1.81% to HK$108.40. Taiwan's TAIEX traded at 46,256.36, down 1.47% or 692.36 points as of 12:34 CST, as TSMC slipped 2.05% to NT$2,390 and the index fell more than 700 points intraday, with TSMC briefly breaking below NT$2,400. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.82% at 3,947.26 at the midday close, the Shenzhen Component fell 1.71% and the ChiNext lost 2.18%, with the CSI 300 off 1.25%; more than 4,300 stocks declined.