Asian shares track Wall Street retreat; big banks tumble

Shares slipped Tuesday in Asia after markets tumbled worldwide on worries about the pandemic’s economic pain.

Shares declined in Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney and Shanghai while Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

Stocks of big banks fell after a report alleged that several are profiting from illicit dealings with criminal networks.

Hong Kong-traded shares in HSBC Holdings PLC, one of the banks mentioned in the report, skidded to their lowest level since 1995. They were down 2.7% by mid-afternoon. Shares in its smaller rival, Standard Chartered PLC dropped 2.3%.

Other banks also have come under pressure on the assumption some may have served as intermediaries in transactions.

Asian airlines shares also declined Tuesday on concerns that a resurgence of pandemic precautions may further hit the travel sector. Korean Air Lines Co. lost 2.4%, China Eastern Airlines' swooned 5.6% and Singapore Airlines lost 1.%.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng lost 1% to 23,709.48 and the Kospi in South Korea sank 2.5% to 2,329.95. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia gave up 0.7% to 5,783.80 and the Shanghai Composite index skidded 1.1% to 3,281.48.

Shares in India, Taiwan and Southeast Asia also fell.

The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said leaked government documents show that the banks, including JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon, continued moving illicit funds even after being warned of potential criminal prosecutions.

The documents were obtained by BuzzFeed News and shared with the ICIJ.

The report helped drive a massive sell-off across global markets because of gloom and doom over COVID-19 infections and the economic damage from the pandemic.

The S&P 500 fell 1.2% on Monday to 3,281.06 for its...