Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Asian markets continued their downward trend on Wednesday, with Japan falling more than 7 per cent in two days.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell by another 2.6 per cent to 15,674.39 points, adding to Tuesday's sharp 5.4 per cent tumble, reports BBC.
Concerns have been fuelled by the strengthening of the yen.
The worry is that if the currency is seen as a safe haven and keeps appreciating, it will hurt companies' international competitiveness and cut into the export sector's profits.
Over the past few days the yen has been rising against the US dollar, despite the Bank of Japan's recent introduction of negative interest rates.
Japan's lenders were amongst the hardest hit as the negative rates are expected to squeeze their already tight profit margins.
The banks Sumitomo, Mitsubishi and Nomura lost as much as 4 per cent on Wednesday.
Markets in Hong Kong, China and Korea remained closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
COMMODITIES WEIGH DOWN AUSTRALIA
In Australia, the ASX 200 lost 2.3 per cent to 4,735.00 points, adding to the 2.8 per cent decline of the previous day.
Shares continued to be weighed down by the dominant energy sector.
Bellwether stocks BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were down by 3.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively as concerns about lower global commodity prices continued to affect the market.
Banking stocks were equally hard hit, with NAB, ANZ and Westpac all seeing significant falls.
The only lender of the big four to beat that trend was the Commonwealth Bank, which posted half-year results just before the market opened.
The bank posted a 4 per cent gain in cash profit although revenues slipped and loan impairment expenses increased.
Shares picked up and rose by 0.8 per cent, which was only a slight gain, especially given that the bank's shares have dropped more than 15 per cent since the beginning of the year.
BBN/SK/AD