Asia opens lower, Japan bucks trend

Asian stock indices opened the third session of the week mostly lower, with China, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea losing ground, while Japan edged higher, as US financial rescue talks reach a dead end. 

Earlier Japanese data showed the M2 money supply index up 7.9% in July, improving from 7.3% in June, while machine orders fell 31.1% y/y in June. 

Earlier Australian data showed wages up 0.2% in the second quarter, slowing down from 0.5%, and missing estimates of 0.3%. 

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand maintained interest rates at their record lows of 0.25% for the third meeting in a row, while raising assets purchases to 100 billion New Zealand dollar. 

Japan's TOPEX rose 0.78%, while Nikkei 225 climbed 0.17% to 11,789. 

China's CSI 300 tumbled 1.41% to 4,615, while Shanghai swooned 1.31% to 3,296. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng inched down 0.16%, while South Korea's KOSPI inched down 0.01% to 2,418. 

New Zealand's NZX 50 fell 1.51% to 11,469, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.45% to 6,111.