Asia falls 1% on last week's session as concern over growth increases

Asian stocks opened last week's session with negative performance as both Chinese and Japanese stock indexes fall, as well as the Hang Seng Index and South Korea's Kospi shares shedding, Australian shares also fell about 1% while New Zealand's stock indexes stabilized on Friday.

This comes amid concern for investors following the European Central Bank's (ECB) cut its forecast for the eurozone's declining economic growth this year to 1.1% from its previous forecast of 1.7% and the sudden launch of a regional bank lending round to stimulate growth, amid The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reducing its forecast again the pace of global economic growth for the current year 2019 and next year 2020.

Otherwise, We also followed forecasts on China Trade Balance index, which showed the surplus shrinking to 34 billion yuan, or $4.1 billion, from 271 billion yuan ($39.2 billion) in January, worse than expectations of a shrink to 257 billion yuan, or $26.2 billion, as exports and imports fell more than anticipated.

Thereafter, hours of economic data from Japan, which showed accelerated growth in the world's third-largest economy in the fourth quarter to 0.5% versus 0.3% in the previous preliminary reading of the previous quarter, beating expectations that accelerated growth to 0.4%, as The seasonally adjusted GDP annualized reading showed growth accelerated to 1.9% from 1.4% in the previous year's preliminary reading of the previous quarter, well above expectations for a 1.7% growth.

Japan's TOPIX index fell 1.29% to shed 20.69 points and reach 1,580.97, also Nikkei 225 index fell 1.46%, losing 313.26 points to 21,142.75 points. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.29% to close at 1,580.97.

Chinese indices also fell, with the CSI 300 index shedding 1.83% to 69.88 points to 3,738.97. The Shanghai index fell 1.93%, shedding 59.96 points to 3,046.46.

Hong Kong stocks "Hang Seng" index fell 1.18% to 340.23 points, reaching 28,439.22. The South Korean Kospi Index fell 0.94%, shedding 20.31 points to 2,145.48.

To the New Zealand NZX 50 index, which rose 0.06% to 5.73 points to 9,443.09. On the other hand, Australia's S & P / ASX 200 index shed 0.86%, shedding 55.19 points to 6,208.70.