AAGIY AIA Group Ltd (PK)

Stocks were broadly lower at the start of Asian trade on Monday, tracking U.S. losses amid expectations of a tightening gap between the U.S. presidential candidates in the run-up to the election next week.

The Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.5% at 17357.11 points in early trade, hitting a two-day low. Elsewhere, the Hang Seng Index was 0.3% lower, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.5% and Korea's Kospi was off 0.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.3%.

On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it was re-examining how Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used her email. This came after investigators found 650,000 emails on a computer used by former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin, one of Clinton's top aides, with metadata on the device suggesting there may be thousands sent to or from the private server that the Democratic nominee used while she was secretary of state.

According to recent polls, the lead Mrs. Clinton held over her Republican rival Donald Trump—who has hit the headlines for his controversial stance on immigration and allegations of sexual misconduct—shrank following the news, down from double digits last week. U.S. markets, buoyed initially by firmer third-quarter gross domestic product data, reversed from early gains to end lower.

"Politics is dominating everything at the moment," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets. "The FBI investigation has seen a bit of money flowing into people backing a Trump win…[and] people are really concerned."

In Japan, markets also came under pressure on Monday as industrial-production and retail-sales data missed economists' forecasts. Shares of Japanese industrial conglomerate Hitachi were up 4.1%, making it one of the best performing Japanese stocks with a market capitalization of $10 billion or above, after the company said its sales fell but its net profits grew for the half-year ended in September.

AIA Group, a blue-chip insurance stock traded in Hong Kong, was down 5.9% on news that China was cracking down on money flows from China into Hong Kong insurance products.

In Korea, the won strengthened slightly, pressuring exporters. Political unrest also added to the uncertainty for equity investors, with thousands of Koreans protesting in Seoul last weekend, calling for President Park Geun-hye to resign following revelations that she had shared classified government documents with her adviser Choi Sun-sil. Among the bright spots, though, Hanjin Shipping rose 29.4% following reports Friday that five shipping groups, including Hyundai Merchant Marine, submitted preliminary bids for the embattled operator's assets.

Meanwhile, oil prices slid lower after a weekend meeting among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to cement an agreement to cut production. The oil cartel tentatively agreed last month to cut production by as much as 2%. A detailed proposal is now expected to be submitted to OPEC's 14 member nations on Nov. 30.

Brent, the global price benchmark, was last down 0.4% at $49.49 a barrel, weighing on producers' share prices across Asia. In Australia, Oil Search was down 2.1%. In Japan, Inpex was off 2.4% and Japan Petroleum Exploration fell 3%.

Looking ahead, the market will be watching for GDP data out of Europe and U.S. price index data.

Shuli Ren, Kosaku Narioka and Devlin Barrett contributed to this article.

Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2016 23:55 ET (03:55 GMT)

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