Asian markets start lower

The Asian markets have started mostly in the red on the back of negative cues from the US markets overnight. The S&P 500 extended its slide to a fourth day, hitting its lowest level since March 18, as a spate of recent weak US data lent support to a bearish outlook for the economy.

Among the major losers for the day are Seoul Composite, Hang Seng, Taiwan Weighted and Straits Times which lost in the range of 0.3 - 0.9%. After a three-day weekend, Hong Kong investors were mainly catching up to losses inspired by disappointing U.S. jobs data at the end of last week. The sell off seen today is mainly in the financials which were the worst performers since the past few trading sessions.

On the other hand, Nikkei and Shanghai Composite are flat wirth a positive bias. The Nikkei after languishing rebounded due to the gains in Tepco and Toyota.