Tokyo — Asian shares fell on Thursday after the US hit Chinese telecoms giant Huawei with severe sanctions, threatening to further strain Sino-US trade ties. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.2%, hovering not far off its lowest since late January. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.6%, with banks hurt by weak earnings, while South Korean shares also lost 0.6% and Chinese blue chips were down 0.2%. Asian shares had steadied in early trade on news that US President Donald Trump was planning to delay tariffs on auto imports, providing much needed relief to markets hit by a flare-up in trade tensions and weak US and Chinese economic data. Bucking the downtrend, Australian stocks held steady as weaker-than-expected local jobs data supported expectations for a central bank rate cute. The US commerce department said late on Wednesday it was adding Huawei Technologies and 70 affiliates to its “Entity List” — a move that bans the company from acquiring components and te...
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