She added:"This might worsen the credit profile for corporates and dampen investment sentiment as individuals become less wealthy."Singapore's Straits Times Index opened 5.7 per cent lower, its largest fall at the opening bell since October 2008. The STI continued to see sell-offs in the early session, trading down 177.23 points or 7.4 per cent to 2,233.51 as at 11.08am.
In North Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 959.74 points or 4.2 per cent to 21,845.33, and mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 68.27 points or 2.5 per cent to 2,677.35.Bucking the trend in the region was Japan's Nikkei 225, which was helped by a cheaper Japanese Yen and possible stimulus measures by the Bank of Japan. It was trading 125.15 points or 0.8 per cent higher at 16,677.98.
In South-east Asia, Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index shed 177.59 points or 4.2 per cent to 4,017.35, and Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was trading 34.37 points or 2.6 per cent lower at 1,268.91. Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, Australia's commodity-heavy S&P/ASX 200 Index shed 345.50 points or 7.2 per cent to trade at 4,471.10.