Asian bourses open lower after Monday's market turmoil

THE few Asian bourses that have opened have done so to a weak start, following Monday's market turmoil that was exacerbated by the Chinese stockmarket crash.

On Tuesday morning, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 3.7 per cent, while the broader Topix index was down 4.3 per cent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down one per cent, doing better than the 3.7 per cent drop the futures market was looking for.

Meanwhile, Korea's Kospi was down 1.1 per cent and New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 was down 2.2 per cent.

The cautious trades came on the back of mounting worries over China's economy, which had the Shanghai Composite shed 8.5 per cent on Monday, its worst day since February 2007.

This had triggered a global markets selloff on Monday.

Hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the value of global markets on Monday as panicked investors sent stock markets into a tailspin.