Four out of five major Asian stocks logged losses today. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended over 2.2 per cent down, China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 1.3 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.2 per cent and Singapore’s Strait Times index slipped marginally by 0.1 per cent.

Conversely, South Korea’s Kospi rose over 0.2 per cent, extending gains for a fifth session. Major European indices were trading in negative territory. Germany’s DAX was trading over 0.6 per cent down, the CAC 40 was trading almost 0.6 per cent down and London’s FTSE 100 had dropped almost half a per cent when reports last came in.