The big loser of the morning was Chinese Shenzhen which in the initial trading had lost 1.7 percent. Also Shanghai's index dropped 0.7 percent. It was also sour on the Hong Kong-based Hang Seng which lost 1.4 percent.
In Japan, Nikkei 225 was at lunchtime at -0.9 while the broader Topix closed at lunch at -0.7.
Only the South Korean Kospi showed positive figures with an increase of 0.3 percent.
