The Shanghai composite bucked a generally downward trend in Asia on Wednesday as major indexes in Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong all fell.
The Nikkei 225 fell 136.26 points, or 0.9%, to 15,915.79.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index stumbled 222.33 points, or 1.2%, to 19,192.45
A move away from riskier assets to safer grounds saw the Japanese yen strengthen against the dollar, with the U.S. dollar/yen pair falling to the 111 handle. The pair traded down 0.14 percent at 111.95 in the afternoon.
Energy plays across the region were mostly down with Santos closing down 6.6%, Woodside Petroleum declining 2.6%, andInpex falling 1.3% Japan's Fuji Oil was up by 0.4%
Overnight comments from Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, dashed hopes for a possible production cut to tackle the global supply glut and sent already low oil prices lower still.
Last week, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar and Venezuela proposed a freeze that would cap production at January levels, contingent on participation from other oil producers.
Russia's energy minister said on Saturday that the deal should be finalized by March 1, Reuters reported.
But Iran's oil minister said on Tuesday that the output freeze deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia was "a joke."
Sharp shares finished down 2.8% as its board started a two-day meeting on Wednesday to decide on which of the two takeover offers to accept. The troubled Japanese electronics maker has competing offers from Japanese state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan and Taiwan's Foxconn, which reportedly is offering Sharp a $5.9-billion U.S. takeover offer, according to Reuters.
In Australia, earnings season continued with iron ore producer Fortescue reporting its first-half earnings for the six months ended December 31. Net profit was down 4% to $319 million on-year. Shares of Fortescue closed down 4.8%
Generally, Australian resource producers were under pressure with the likes of Rio Tinto selling off 5.8% and BHP Billion declining 8.2%.
CHINA
The Shanghai CSI 300 index bucked the trend and rose 20.18 points, or 0.7%, to 3,109.55
Mainland Chinese oil plays ended mostly in positive territory with shares of China Oilfield gaining 1%
On Wednesday, the People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan midpoint at 6.5302 to the dollar. China's central bank lets the yuan spot rate rise or fall a maximum of 2% against the dollar, relative to the official fixing rate.
The U.S. dollar-yuan pair traded at 6.5315 in the afternoon.
In other markets;
In Korea, the Kospi index inched down 1.69 points, or 0.1%, to 1,912.53
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index subtracted 52.11 points, or 2%, to 2,619.96
In Taiwan, the Taiex index dropped 51.78 points, or 0.6%, to 8,282.86
The NZX 50 in New Zealand added 54.7 points, or 0.9%, to 6,230.37.
In Australia, the ASX 200 slid 104.57 points, or 2.1%, to 4,875.02
