Asian stocks turn negative amid calm session

A renewed bout of risk-aversion appears to hit the Asian markets over the last hour, sending the region’s indices back in the red, after a brief rise seen in early trades.

The Japanese yen moving-off highs against the American dollar, and indicates a cautious tone in the markets, which thus, weighs on the sentiment around the risky assets such as the equities. Meanwhile, the Japanese shares are down 2.1% for the week as the yen reached the strongest level since November 2013. 

Meanwhile, retreat in the oil prices further weighed down on the energy and resource stocks, dragging the indices lower.

The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225 trades -0.07% lower at 16,474. The Australian markets pare gains, with the S&P/ASX 200 now trading +0.08% at 5,513 points.

The Chinese equities also drift lower, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index down -0.30%; the CSI300 index also loses -0.35%. While Hong Kong drops -0.62% to trade around 22,885 levels.