SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia traded sharply lower on Thursday, following on from major falls on Wall Street overnight.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 411.56 points or 1.54 percent to 26,393.94.

The Australian All Ordinaries let go 131.40 points or 1.91 percent to 6,746.50.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 declined 90.11 points or 0.82 percent to 10,868.70.

South Korea's Kospi Composite retreated 45.35 points or 1.91 percent to 2,332.64.

China's Shanghai Composite went against the trend, adding 37.10 points or 1.10 percent to 3,398.42.

On foreign exchange markets, drifted a few points lower Thursday. The euro perked up to 1.0445 by the Sydney close. The British pound weakened a touch to 1.2130. The Japanese yen edged up to 1.3621. The Swiss franc was little changed at 0.9550.

The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.2911. The Australian dollar was steady at 0.6881. The New Zealand dollar dropped to 0.6224,

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose 82.32 points or 0.27 percent to 31,029.31.

The Nasdaq Composite dipped 3.65 points or 0.03 percent to 11,177.89.

The Standard and Poor's 500 softened 2.72 points or 0.07 percent to 3,818.83.