Outside of China's Shanghai Composite, global stock benchmarks are selling off due to falling oil prices
Most stocks in Asia closed lower on Wednesday, as falling oil prices weighed on stock markets after Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi on Tuesday said
oil production would not be cut. The one positive outlier was China's Shanghai Composite; the index posted a gain of 0.9%, with investors anticipating new initiatives from the Chinese government to strengthen state-owned enterprises. Leading the losers was Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which dropped 1.2%. Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei lost 0.9% and South Korea's Kospi slid 0.1%.
The situation is no different in Europe, where energy stocks are suffering heavy losses amid falling crude oil prices. Mining stocks are also crumbling, with heavyweight BHP Billiton continuing to its
post-earnings plummet from Tuesday. London's FTSE 100 was down 1.3% at last check, and France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX had fallen 2% and 2.3%, respectively.
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