In today’s market report… Japan snapped a two day losing streak to close a touch higher, but other Asian stocks fell sharply, led lower by commodity stocks.
Oil giant PetroChina led the drop among Hong Kong's energy stocks, while banks weighed on the Hang Seng after Beijing introduced new import payment rules to stop illegal capital inflows.
The index was down over 1.5 percent at midday.
Financial shares led the fall in Shanghai, ahead of expected strong earnings from the Bank of China and Agricultural Bank.
Miners were the biggest losers in Sydney, with the mining sub-index off by nearly two percent.
But a strong second-half performance by National Australia Bank limited falls on the benchmark All-Ordinaries.
Tokyo's stocks pared gains but still ended on the plus side, with drug-makers such as Astellas Pharma offsetting rises among Japan's automakers and consumer electronics exporters.
Toyota rose 1.6 percent after the top carmaker hinted at adjusting its dollar-yen exchange rate to 80 from 90.
Markets were also waiting on earnings from camera-maker Canon, after the market closed, and Nintendo and Sony later in the week.
Canon reported a higher-than-expected 74 percent jump in profits, but cut its dollar-yen assumptions to 80 for the fourth quarter.
