Asian stocks look to be sinking deep into the bear market territory, losing more than $4.9 trillion in value this year, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, Oct. 25.
MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 11 percent in October, the deepest plunge it got in a ten-year period.
The dive was seen across markets from Tokyo to Hong Kong and Seoul, with most of the stocks entering an oversold state.
Japan's Topix index dipped 3.1 percent, the lowest since September 2017. Nikkei 225 Stock fell 3.7 percent.
The Kospi Index plunged 1.6 percent, taking the South Korean market into bear-market territory.
China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.8 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipped 1 percent.
Cathay Pacific shares were down 3.95 percent. Samsung shares were also down to 3.64 percent.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index plunged 2.8 percent. Majority of the banking stocks have suffered the deluge. Australia's largest wealth manager plunged 24.47 percent.
Shares of ANZ fell 2.55 percent, Commonwealth bank dipped 2.38 percent, Westpac slid 2.49 percent, and the National Australia Bank dipped 2.5 percent.
Mining shares were also suffering. Rio Tonto dropped 4.52 percent, Fortescue was down by 5.7 percent, and BHP fell 3.96 percent.
Analysts said the major decline was driven primarily by a major sell-off that happened Wednesday on Wall Street overnight.
On Thursday, however, the majority of U.S. stocks were back performing remarkably. The U.S. market recovers from disappointing Wednesday as Microsoft, Visa and Xilinx rallied after announcing their quarterly reports. Twitter and Comcast made internet and media stocks attractive once again while Ford led the slight growth among consumer-focused stocks.
Indeed, the biggest driver of loss this week for Asian stocks was the U.S. dollar hitting a new high on Wednesday.
A strengthening dollar may drive the money back to the U.S. market, making the emerging-markets "outflow worse for the rest of this year," UOB Kay Hian Steven Leung told Bloomberg.
Aside from strengthening dollar, sentiment for the Asian stocks was heavily influenced by the majority of developments across the global market. For instance, there is a mounting conflict over financial relations between Italy and the European Union. There has also been escalating anxiety over the economic impact and the repercussion on geopolitical relations within the international community following the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
On top of all these, analysts said investors remained anxious over the ongoing China-US trade war and the rising rates as imposed by the Federal Reserve.
The market uncertainty would linger as long as the United States and China continue to react with rhetoric, said Jim McCafferty, the head of equity research for Asia ex-Japan at Nomura Holdings Inc.
