Somber stock market sentiment in Asia as markets fall

China's Shenzhen is one of the biggest losers in early trading, down 1.4 percent. Shanghai is also down 0.6 percent.

In South Korea, the Kospi is down 0.2 percent.

The Hong Kong-based Hang Seng is down 0.4 percent.

However, the Tokyo Stock Exchange broke the trend and the Nikkei 225 index rose by 0.3 percent. But the broader Topix is still down, by 0.1 percent.