HONG KONG-- Asian stocks were lower Tuesday morning as a sharp overnight falloff in crude-oil prices sent energy stocks, including Japan's Inpex Holdings and Australia's Woodside Petroleum, downward.
The Nikkei 225 Average (JP:1804610: news, chart, profile) finished the morning session down 0.4% at 16,187.6. On Monday, the index rose for the fourth consecutive session and closed at its highest level in nearly a month.
The broader Topix index was down 0.6% at 1,614.9.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index (HK:1804580: news, chart, profile) was down as much as 0.6% to 17,444.5 in early trading.
"At these levels is seems momentum is lacking, so Hong Kong and Japan markets are listless and waiting for more figures to come out from the U.S.," said Peter Lai, sales director at DBS Vickers in Hong Kong. "Most regional markets are taking a wait and see approach."
He added that the Hong Kong market is seeing some draining of funds ahead of the initial public offering by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, expected to be the largest IPO in history.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost as much as 0.5%. Woodside Petroleum was off by as much as 2.7%.
Markets in South Korea and mainland China were closed Tuesday for holidays.
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