On the Singapore bourse, losers more than doubled gainers 249 to 121, after 694.7 million securities worth S$701.6 million changed hands.
Among the most heavily traded, Health Management International was flat at S$0.72 after about 20 million shares were traded.Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust was down S$0.04 or 3 per cent at S$1.30 after 17.2 million units changed hands, while Rex International gained S$0.003 or 4.8 per cent at S$0.065 with 17 million shares traded.Singtel was one of the most active index stocks, trading down S$0.03 or 0.9 per cent to S$3.23.
The three local banks continued their morning's red streak, with DBS sliding S$0.22 or 0.9 per cent to S$24.72, UOB down S$0.25 or 1 per cent to S$25.80, and OCBC shedding S$0.09 or 0.8 per cent to S$11.00.as fears about a drawn out Sino-US trade war, protests in Hong Kong and a crash in Argentina's peso currency drove investors to safe harbours like bonds, gold, and the Japanese yen.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1 per cent. Chinese stocks fell 0.8 per cent, while Hong Kong's main market index tumbled more than 1 per cent to a seven-month low. Japan's Nikkei was also hit hard, down a sharp 1.5 per cent and on course for its biggest daily decline in a week.