Asian shares fell on Thursday after a mixed start, amid uncertainty over the U.K.'s exit from the European Union and as the dollar strengthened.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan slumped 154.26 points, or 0.8%, to 19,063.22, likely due to prolonged yen strength. The yen is seen as a safe-haven currency, but a stronger yen is generally negative for many Japanese companies as export earnings are reduced.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 90.96 points, or 0.4%, to 24,301.09
Shares of Toshiba surged 4% after shareholders approved a proposal to split off the Japanese conglomerate's NAND flash memory unit, amid growing losses at its U.S. nuclear subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric.
Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, after it posted a multi-billion-dollar writeoff due to cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S.
Australian markets continued on the march, led by materials and energy sub-indexes.
Earlier, official data showed that job vacancies have risen 1.8% to 182,400 from the previous quarter. This was the highest number of job vacancies since May 2011, and seen as a positive for Australia's labour market.
Australia began evacuating resort islands in the tropical northeast of thousands of people on Thursday, as water supplies began to run low, according to media reports. On the mainland of Queensland, tens of thousands of people were still without power, as officials warned of more heavy rainfall in the wake of Cyclone Debbie.
The U.S. dollar broke above the 100 handle it has hovered at for the past eight sessions, to trade at 100.05 against a basket of currencies. Against the greenback, the yen was weaker at 111.1 and the Australian dollar was at $0.7655.
In Korea, where markets were fairly flat Thursday, Samsung Electronics was up 0.5%, after releasing its Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone in South Korea today. The latest model is the company's first premium smartphone since its September recall of all Galaxy Note 7 devices due to its fire-prone batteries.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 dropped 28.43 points, or 0.8%, to 3,436.76
The Kospi Index in Korea subtracted 2.34 points, or 0.1%, to 2,164.64
In Taiwan, the Taiex lost 8.1 points, or 0.1%, to 9,848.15
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index backtracked 11.33 points, or 0.4%, to 3,173.24
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 moved up 35.55 points, or 0.5%, to 7,169.11
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 22.71 points, or 0.4%, to 5,896.23
