Asian markets in red; Nikkei down 167pts

Asian markets are mostly in red this morning.

The Nikkei has shed 167 points to 17,285. The Hang Seng has slipped 25 points to 20,547.

The Taiwan Weighted index dropped 38 points to 8007.  The Straits Times and Seoul Composite indices were down 10 points each to 3364 and 1547, respectively.

The Shanghai Composite index, however, was up 25 points at 3741.