Japanese Markets Tumble, Nikkei Down 2.36%

Asian stocks fell broadly on Thursday as tech shares came under heavy selling pressure on signs of worsening trade tensions between the China and the United States.

Japanese markets tumbled amid a sell-off in the tech sector. Also, the yen's strengthening against the dollar dragged export-oriented issues.

The Nikkei average slumped 2.36 percent to 40,126.35 while the broader Topix index fell 1.60 percent to 2,868.63.

Tokyo Electron, which ships advanced semiconductor technology to China, plunged 8.8 percent. Screen Holdings lost 8.4 percent, Advantest gave up 4.9 percent and SoftBank Group shed 6.1 percent.

Japan posted a merchandise trade surplus of 224.038 billion yen in June, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.

Exports were up 5.4 percent on year at 9.208 trillion yen, shy of forecasts for an increase of 6.4 percent and down from 13.5 percent in the previous month.

Imports rose an annual 3.2 percent to 8.984 trillion yen versus expectation for a gain of 9.3 percent and down from 9.5 percent a month earlier.

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