SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were lower on Monday, with multiple major markets in the region seeing big losses as China slashed its benchmark lending rate for the first time in more than one-and-a-half years.

Mainland Chinese stocks closed lower, with the Shanghai composite down 1.07% to 3,593.60 and the Shenzhen component falling 2.007% to 14,569.18. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped about 2%, as of its final hour of trading.

China on Monday announced a cut in its one-year loan prime rate from 3.85% to 3.8% — the first such move since April 2020. Majority of traders and economists in a Reuters poll had expected cuts to the loan prime rate.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 in Japan closed 2.13% lower at 27,937.81 while the Topix index shed 2.17% to 1,941.33. South Korea’s Kospi ended the trading day 1.81% lower at 2,963.

In India, both the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex plunged nearly 3% each, as of 12:43 p.m. local time.

Australian stocks also declined on the day, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.16% to 7,292.20.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.92% lower.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.593 after recently climbing from below 96.

The Japanese yen traded at 113.40 per dollar, stronger than levels above 114 seen against the greenback last week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7091, off levels above $0.72 seen last week.