Asia shares sink as global growth worries deepen

Asian share markets sank on Tuesday as heightened worries about a slowing global economy sent Wall Street stocks skidding to their lowest levels in more than a year. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.9 percent in mid-afternoon trade while Japan's Nikkei lost 1.8 percent to close at its lowest since late March. European shares are expected to start in negative territory, with spread-betters expecting Britain's FTSE to open 0.8 percent lower and Germany's DAX and France's CAC to give up 0.6 percent each. Chinese shares slumped, with the blue-chip index dropping 1.1 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index down 1.2 percent, while Australian shares also lost 1.2 percent. Markets did not find any relief after a highly-anticipated speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday.MSCI's broadest gauge of the world's stock markets, ACWI, was down 0.2 percent on Tuesday, after having hit its weakest level since May 2017 the previous day. It has declined 16 percent from a top hit on Jan. 29.U.S. stock futures last traded around flat on the day after erasing gains of up to half a percent booked earlier in the session.On Monday, the S&P 500 lost 2.08 percent to hit its lowest since October 2017 as it breached lows reached during a sell-off in February, having wiped out about $3.4 trillion of market value since late September.The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.27 percent, with Amazon, one of the best performing shares this year, sliding 4.5 percent.