Gloomy on Asian Exchanges

There were gloomy tones on the leading exchanges in Asia on Thursday morning. By lunchtime, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 had fallen by 0.3 percent, while the broader Topix index was down 0.6 percent.

Shanghai's and Shenzhen's composite indexes had both fallen by 1.5 and 2.5 percent, respectively. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.6 percent.