Now investors have plenty of reason to sell Asia stocks

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.7 percent, while South Korea rose 0.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei gained 1.2 percent but could not quite sustain a two-week top. (South Korean dealers work in front of monitors at the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, 11 February 2016. - EPA)

HONG KONG: The latest round of inflammatory rhetoric between the US and North Korea has equity investors around the world starting to succumb to their impulse to head for the exit.

US President Donald Trump’s threat of “fire and fury” gave traders a fresh justification to reduce risk yesterday, sending stocks from South Korea to Japan and Hong Kong tumbling.