Asia markets fell on Monday, with currencies such as the pound sterling in Britain tumbling nearly 0.4% to the U.S. dollar.
The Nikkei 225 Index declined 176.07 points, or 0.9%, to close Monday at 19,107.47, with exporters likely under pressure from a relatively stronger yen, which traded at 112.21 to the dollar late Monday afternoon local time, strengthening from levels above 112.80 U.S. last week. Earlier, the yen hit a session high of 111.89 against the greenback.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong dropped 40.65 points, or 0.2%, to 23,925.05
Major exporters closed mostly lower, with Toyota down 0.7%, Honda down 1.6% and Sony off by 0.9%.
Shares of troubled Japanese airbag maker Takata beat the generally downward trend to climb 1.1%, after a Wall Street Journal report that it is on the verge of hiring attorney Kenneth Feinberg to sort through claims for its $125-million U.S. compensation fund for victims of faulty air bags.
Last month, Takata agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and pay a total of $1 billion U.S. in criminal penalties stemming from its fraudulent conduct in relation to sales of defective airbag inflators
Elsewhere, SoftBank shares fell 2.4%, despite news the internet and telecom giant is close to finalizing an investment in WeWork. A source told media outlets the deal is expected to be worth over $3 billion U.S.
Samsung Electronics — the flagship brand of Samsung Group — closed down 0.4%, as South Korea's largest conglomerate seeks to overcome its involvement in an influence peddling scandal, while also recovering from last year's exploding Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.
On Sunday, Samsung announced its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, will be unveiled on March 29.
Meantime, sterling tumbled as low as $1.2388 U.S. in early Asia trade, but later retraced some losses, with the pound/dollar pair trading at $1.2419 late afternoon local time. That was down from levels above $1.25 U.S. in the previous session.
Analysts pointed to a report from the Times of London that suggested Prime Minister Theresa May was preparing for the Scottish government to call a second independence referendum to coincide with the triggering of Article 50 in March.
In other markets
Markets in Taiwan were shuttered for holiday
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 ditched 27.63 points, or 0.8%, to 3,446.22
In Korea, the Kospi index fell 8.6 points, or 0.4%, to 2,085.52
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index dropped 8.41 points, or 0.3%, to 3,108.62
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 picked up 20.60 points, or 0.3%, to 7,079.18
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 doffed 14.8 points, or 0.3%, to 5,724.18
