MELBOURNE, Victoria, Australia - Stocks in Asia fell significantly on Friday, after a significant decline on Wall Street.
On the Asian Pacific markets, the Seoul stock exchange closed on National Day, and New South Wales closed in Australia, although the ASX remained open with the main business being done out of Melbourne. As China began Golden Week, China's Shanghai Composite was out of action.
The Australian All Ordinaries dropped 22.30 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,656. The market was nervous ahead of the monthly meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday, at which the central bank is expected to hike interest rates by another 50 basis points.
In New Zealand, the S&P NZX 50 plummeted 106.26 points or 0.96 percent to 10,959. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading down 153 points ahead of a public holiday Tuesday.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225, going against the trend, surged 278.58 points or 1.07 percent to close Monday at 26,215. The British pound was close to 1.1234 at the Melbourne close, with the U.S. dollar under pressure from most quarters on Monday.
The euro rose to 0.9827. The Japanese yen was little changed at 144.78. The Swiss franc was able to keep pace with the Swiss franc at 0.9842.
The Canadian dollar went up to 1.3735. The Australian and New Zealand dollars rose strongly to 0.6458 and 0.5661, respectively.