Shares fell in Asia on Tuesday after Wall Street logged its biggest drop in more than a year as markets were jolted by another surge in oil prices, the Associated Press reported. Benchmarks declined in Tokyo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai following a 3% tumble for the S&P 500. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 1.7% in afternoon trading to 24,783.70. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 sank 0.8% to 6,980.30. South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.8% to 2,631.49. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.5% to 20,956.39, while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.2% to 3,333.49. Benchmark U.S. crude advanced $2.67 to $122.07 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It settled at $119.40 per barrel on Monday, up 3.2%, after earlier touching $130.50. Brent crude, the international pricing standard, added $3.75 to $126.96 a barrel. It had settled at $123.21 per barrel, up 4.3%, after earlier topping $139. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 115.48 Japanese yen from 115.32 yen. The euro cost $1.0865, up from $1.0853.
