ASIAN SHARES EXTEND LOSSES, SET FOR WORST MONTH SINCE MARCH 2020

SHANGHAI, Asian shares fell on Friday, extending their biggest monthly drop since the height of global pandemic lockdowns last March on lingering investor concern over regulatory crackdowns in China on the education, property and tech sectors. Losses deepened even after reassurances from Chinese regulators and official media that helped to soothe investors’ nerves a day earlier, and following indications from the U.S. Federal Reserve that its bond-buying programme will remain unchanged for now. A continuing outbreak of Delta variant COVID-19 cases in China’s coastal province of Jiangsu also weighed on the mood on Friday.