Chinese rate hike spurs sell-off across Asia

Stocks in Hong Kong and China tumbled after the Chinese central bank suprised the markets with an interest rate hike. Also US markets weighed on Asia; Wall Street ended deep in red on concerns that the banks may have to remove billions of dollars in mortgages which should not have been piled into bonds.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 1.48 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 1.59 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.76 percent

Property developer and commodity shares were leading the losses in early trade, however banking stocks were firm as the rate hike is expected to boost interest-rate margins. The Shanghai Composite Index has dropped 0.55% and the Hang Seng Index has lost 1.5%.

Also Japan's Nikkei fell 2.2% in the morning session; Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted bucked trend, the indices were up 0.3% and 0.2% each.