Hong Kong stocks ended lower for a third straight session on Wednesday, as investors acted cooler toward the recently launched Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect scheme.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 shed 55.31 points, or 0.3%, to 17,288.75, with the yen weakening to fresh seven-year lows against the U.S. dollar, with the greenback buying ¥117.58 from ¥117.12 in the previous day.
On Wednesday, the Bank of Japan held its monetary policy steady and maintained that the economy continues to recover moderately "as a trend."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday called early elections for December and postponed by 18 months a sales-tax hike that was initially planned for October 2015. That move came after government data showed the economy unexpectedly entered recession in the third quarter.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell another 155.86 points, or 0.7%, to 23,373.31, bringing its decline over the past three sessions to 3%. Last week, the index logged a five-day winning streak, snagging a weekly gain of 2.3%.
Investors didn’t use up the daily investment quota on Wednesday for the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect program, which allows direct trade between the two markets and foreign individual investors to buy mainland equities.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. , the city’s sole bourse operator, tumbled 3.4%, marking a fourth consecutive loss.
BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd., the only clearing bank for yuan transactions in Hong Kong, retreated 0.9%.
Most brokerage firms suffered losses, as Haitong International Securities Group Ltd. slid 3.5%, Shenyin Wanguo (HK) Ltd. declined 2.8%, China Everbright Ltd. shredded 2.4%, and First Shanghai Investments Ltd. gave up 2%.
Among major blue-chips, telecoms giant China Mobile Ltd. pulled back 1.9%, and Chinese online major Tencent Holdings Ltd. moved down 1.1%.
Other market movers included Macau gaming stock Sands China Ltd., down 1.3%, Chinese offshore oil and gas producer Cnooc Ltd., down 0.9%. State-owned energy giant PetroChina Co. Ltd. was lower by 0.8%.
In other markets;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 index dropped 4.19 points, or 0.2%, to 2,537.22
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 20.83 points, or 0.6%, to 3,334.56
The Taiex index in Taiwan recovered 104.17 points, or 1.2%, to 8,963.24
Korea’s Kospi index gave back 0.14 points to 1,966.87
New Zealand’s Exchange 50 added 17.03 points, or 0.3%, to 5,522.06
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 30.85 points, or 0.6%, to 5,368.84.
