Explosions hit central Jakarta Thursday sending Indonesia's stocks tumbling and other Asian markets following in the wake. The Jakarta composite fell to a session low of 4,477.67 before retracing some losses to trade down 1.28 percent. The dollar-rupiah pair went up 0.72 percent at 13,920 on news of the explosions.
Major Asian stock markets continued their downward slide, following a massive sell-off on Wall Street overnight, pressured by concerns over a global economic slowdown and low oil prices.
Japan's Nikkei plummeted as much as 4% Thursday morning, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell as much as 2.1%.
Chinese stocks moved toward their lowest levels since last year’s market selloff, heading for a bear market on fears that economic growth will remain slow and that a weakening currency will continue to show large capital outflows.
The Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.1 percent to 2,917.52 at the break, down from the low of 2,927.29 in August, when a summer rout wiped out $5 trillion and spurred the government to impose emergency rescue measures. After rebounding in the fourth quarter, shares have resumed declines as volatility returned.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.51 percent.
Wall Street
Major indexes in the U.S. were sharply in the red, with the S&P 500 slipping below the 1,900-point benchmark and officially entering correction territory, down 11.29 percent from its May 21, 2015, closing high of 2,130.82.
The S&P 500 lost 48.40 points, or 2.50 percent, to drop to 1,890.28 on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 364.81 points, or 2.21 percent, at 16,151.41, while the Nasdaq composite was down 159.85 points, or 3.41 percent, at 4,526.06.