Asian markets fell sharply Friday, hurt by a sell-off on Wall Street.

The decline was led by banking stocks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in Tokyo and miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in Sydney, but shares of Lenovo Group rose in Hong Kong despite broad market weakness after a strong earnings report.

Japan's Nikkei 225 average dropped 1.6% to 16,608.70 and the broader Topix index fell 1.5% to 1,610.75.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 2.4% to 30,747.77, recovering some of its losses after dropping as low as 30,492.31 in early minutes. The 43-issue Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 2.6% at 19,641.68.

In China, the Shanghai Composite lost 1.8% at 5,805.39, also recovering after falling as low as 5,762.21 earlier in the session.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.7% at 6,714, New Zealand's NZX 50 index declined 1.2% to 4,159.25 and South Korea's Kospi dropped 1% to 2,042.09.

Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 1.7% to 3,740.75, Taiwan's Weighted index sank 2.1% to 9,398.06 and Malaysia's KLSE Composite dropped 1.1% to 1,393.72.

China Japan HANG SENG INDEX Lenovo