Asian markets end mixed after Hang Seng dives in last hour

Asian markets finished the day mixed on Tuesday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index took a dive in the last hour of trading after other markets closed.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.75% at 1 a.m. New York time, while the Shanghai Composite index ended down 1.91 percent at 2 a.m. The Hang Seng, which was trading at 22,408.9 at 2 a.m., closed down 0.38% to 22,326.64 at 3 a.m.

USD/JPY, a barometer for risk appetite, was relatively flat for the Asian session until 1 am. At 2 am, the pair traded at 92.182. Within 1 hour, it traded as low as 91.714, losing 46.8 pips. The Australian dollar - a high-yielding and commodity currency that has benefited from the global economic recovery - followed a similar pattern by dropping against the dollar at 2 am.