China COSCO Holdings Co Ltd, however bucked the falling trend to post a life-time high driven by news about the shipping conglomerate's possible acquisition of its parent company's bulk carrier fleet. There is speculation that it might do so by issuing domestic A shares.
The company ended the trading day up 5.4% at HK$13.4.
This also led to the Hong Kong index paring gains, but analysts are of the view that weak European markets could hurt it in the coming days.
Japan's Nikkei average also dropped 2.16 percent to touch its lowest point in almost three months, as the Wall Street crash and a stronger yen dampened sentiments.
The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite index have slumped too, with the former shedding 450 points to 22,761, while the latter has dropped 43 points to 4304. The Taiwan Weighted index has crashed 404 points to 9162.
The Straits Times index has dropped 112 points to 3468, and the Seoul Composite index has shed 80 points to 1883.
