Equities decline as geopolitical tensions weigh

Shares have declined across Asia today (July 18th), as trading sentiment turned risk averse after a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was reportedly shot down by a surface-to-air missile close to the border between Russia and Ukraine.

This further stretched relations between Russia and the West and comes less than 48 hours after the US and European Union introduced the most stringent sanctions to date against businesses in the country.

As news broke of the tragic incident, the S&P 500 tumbled by 1.3 per cent on Wall Street and investors sought out traditional safe-haven assets such as yen and gold.

During the Asian session, the Nikkei 225 lost as much as 1.7 per cent, but recovered to close one per cent lower at 15,215.71 points. Since the start of the week, the Tokyo benchmark index has added 0.3 per cent.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.1 per cent after it was revealed growth in Chinese property prices cooled last month, while the Hang Seng dropped by 0.55 per cent in Hong Kong.