Asian markets slipped Wednesday despite higher oil prices, with Samsung Electronics shares falling after the company said it would permanently stop selling its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.
The Nikkei 225 Index deleted 184.76 points, or 1.1%, to 16,840
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gave back 142.47 points, or 0.6%, to 23,407.05
Samsung stock dropped 0.7%, recovering from losses of more than 3.3% earlier, to 1,535,000 won ($1,366 U.S.) each, as the market weighed the impact on the South Korean tech giant's overall business.
Shares of major South Korean telecoms were mixed; SK Telecom was down 0.2%, KT was up 1.1% and LG Uplus fell 1.3%.
In Japan, core machinery orders fell by 2.2% from the previous month, compared to an economist poll that had forecast declines of 5.5%.
The fall in core orders, which is a highly volatile data series, is an indicator of near-term capital spending.
Australian markets were weighed by their energy sub-index, which fell 0.9%, and its material component, which dropped 1.1%
Despite higher crude prices, shares in Asian oil majors were negative. Australia's Santos was down 2.5%, while Oil Search shed 2%
Japan's Inpex was down 0.5%, while South Korea's S-Oil was lower by 3.4% and China Petroleum was down 0.8%
The Melbourne Institute-Westpac Bank survey found that Australian consumer sentiment rose 1.1% in October from the previous month.
CHINA
The CSI 300 doffed 6.55 points, or 0.2%, to 3,300.01
The People's Bank of China set the yuan mid-point fix weaker at 6.7258, compared to the last close at 6.7185. The offshore renminbi also weakened against the U.S. dollar, and was trading at 6.7218 as of late afternoon Wednesday.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi eked up 1.8 points, or 0.1%, to 2,033.73
The Straits Times Index in Singapore slid 42.42 points, or 1.5%, to 2,813.71
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index recovered 32.78 points, or 0.4%, to 9,252.60
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 retreated 16.78 points, or 0.2%, to 7,107.46
In Australia, the ASX 200 fell 5.18 points, or 0.1%, to 5,474.62
