Asia report: Japan leads losses amid oil concerns

Investors were sprinting away from Asian stocks on Wednesday, after a shocker session in the US overnight, with Tokyo leading the downhill run for most of the day.

The Nikkei Stock Average closed down 3.15%, while investors were clambering for the safety of the yen. Weak earning results were also a factor in the island nation, with Nomura Holdings reporting poor results, sending their stocks down 10.27%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index closed down 2.34%, while the Kospi in Seoul was down 0.84%. Gains in the Chinese property sector stemmed the losses on the Shanghai Composite Index, which closed down 0.38%.

Asian traders were responding to the almost 300-point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average overnight, with the US benchmark closing down 1.8%. It was a bad night for oil too, with New York-traded crude falling below $30 a barrel, taking Exxon Mobil down 2.23% and BP down 1.38%.

After a choppy day of Asian trading, London Brent was up 1.24% to $33.13, and West Texas Intermediate was up 1.42% to $30.31 per barrel.

"The main concern seems to be weakness in the oil price", said Haitong International managing director Andrew Sullivan in a note.

China's property rally came after Beijing lawmakers relaxed borrowing rules for home buyers, reducing mortgage down payments for first-time purchasers to 20% from a previous 25%.

The People's Bank also reduced the down payment level for families with an existing mortgage looking for a second property, to 30% from 40%.

Services in the country were also facing encouraging news, with the unofficial Caixin China services purchasing managers' index rising to 52.4 in January, up from 50.2 in December. The figure indicated growth in the sector, which analysts said was likely a result of Beijing policy measures intended to underpin growth in the sector.

Sydney traders were also hurting from the energy losses, with Woodside Petroleum losing 5% and Liquefied Natural Gas down 8.53%. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.33% overall.

New Zealand bucked its Tuesday gains, with the agrarian economy reacting to a sharp decline in milk prices in the latest Fonterra GlobalDairyTrade auctions. Whole milk powder prices - a major factor in the success of New Zealand's economy - were down more than 10%, sending the S&P/NZX 50 down 0.8%.

Recent star performer A2 Milk declined 3.4% and Synlait Milk fell 1.7%. The oil price situation had an effect too, with NZ Refining falling 2.1%.

Wednesday marked the second day of declines for the region, after a spike late last week following the Bank of Japan's surprise decision to send official interest rates into negative territory.

That had seen the yen reach a weak point of JPY 121.68 per US dollar on Friday, but it had strengthened again this week, hurting Japanese exporters and sending the Nikkei downwards. It was last 0.52% stronger at JPY 119.35 against the greenback.

Other currencies in Asia were under pressure, with the South Korean won 0.99% weaker at KRW 1,219.38 per USD. The down under dollars were rallying, with the Aussie 0.19% stronger at AUD 1.4181 against the USD, and the Kiwi 1.28% stronger at NZD 1.5156.