Shares were sharply sold off across Asia on Wednesday, as a new poll showing Republican candidate Donald Trump leading the U.S. presidential race spooked investors.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 1.2% in early-morning trade, opening at a seven-day low at 17238 points. Australia's S&P/ASX traded 0.8% lower, having earlier hit a seven-week low. Elsewhere, the Hang Seng Index was off 1.1% and Korea's Kospi was down 0.8%.

"The market this morning is driven by the latest poll from ABC/Washington Post and Asian equities are all lower," said Tareck Horchani, deputy head of APAC sales trading at Saxo Markets.

Overnight, an ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll showed Mr. Trump with a one-point advantage over Democrat Hillary Clinton, leading 46% to 45%.

U.S. stocks broadly fell as investors pulled back from risk, which spilled over into the Asian session. Mrs. Clinton is seen as the more market-friendly candidate by many investors.

In Japan, financial and exporter stocks were particularly hard hit as investors digested what a win for Mr. Trump would mean for markets, given his stance on trade and economic policies. Among individual shares, Sumitomo Mitsui shed 1.9% of its value, Mitsubishi fell 1.7%, Suzuki was down 2.2% and Honda slipped 2.7%.

The wave of declines occurred despite strong manufacturing data out of the U.S., Mr. Horchani said.

The Institute for Supply Management late on Tuesday said its purchasing manufacturers index rose to 51.9 in October from 51.5 in September, signaling that the U.S. manufacturing sector could be stabilizing after two years of challenging conditions.

Meanwhile, persistent skepticism that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold together their production-cutting agreement continued to weigh on oil prices, depressing the share prices of regional producers. In Australia, Santos was down 2.6%, while Japan Petroleum was off 2.2%.

In one of the few bright spots, New Zealand's jobless rate fell 4.9% Wednesday to its lowest level in almost eight years in the three months to September, Statistics New Zealand said Wednesday. The Global Dairy Trade Price Index also soared to 11.4% from 1.4% previously, boosting sentiment for New Zealand's dairy-producing economy. Still, the country's main index followed the regional trend, trading down 0.7%.

"The Kiwis posted some solid data," said Alex Wijaya, senior sales trader at CMC Markets, in a note.

Looking ahead, the markets will be focusing on the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting on interest rates later in global trading day. According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, the likelihood the Federal Reserve will announce a rate change is just 7.2%.

Anna Louie Sussman, Akane Otani and James Taranto contributed to this article.

Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 01, 2016 23:05 ET (03:05 GMT)