2017.01.1605:42:00UTC+00Asian Stocks Fall Amid Hard Brexit Fears

Markets in Asia were lower, as the British pound weakened to more than one percent on uncertainty of a hard Brexit from the European Union. Japan was among the largest decliners while the stronger yen placed pressure on the Nikkei.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell one percent at 19,095.2 while the yen strengthened around 113.78 against the dollar. Shares of Toyota dropped 0.8 percent, Nissan slid 0.6 percent, Honda was nearly flat and Sony shed 0.99 percent. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.61 percent at 2,064.17. Shares for units of Samsung were lower, the heavily-weighted Samsung Electronics fell 2.14 percent, Samsung Heavy Industries shed 0.95 percent, Samsung Engineering sank 3.43 percent while Samsung C&T was off 0.78 percent.

China's Shanghai composite was down 0.32 percent at 3,102.7 while the Shenzhen dropped 3.62 percent at 1,851.4. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.85 percent by mid-afternoon. Australian shares bucked the trend, as the ASX 200 closed 0.48 percent at 5,748.4. The material sector gained 1.39 percent, with major resources producers adding more than one percent each, and the energy sector was down 0.31 percent.

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