Barring China and India, Asian markets slide following weak oil prices and upcoming Fed meet

Most of the Asian stock markets were in the red for the day following tumbling oil prices and investor concerns over a potential Fed rate hike later this week. However, China's Shanghai Composite Index and India's Nifty bucked the bearish trend.

Kathy Matsui, managing director at Goldman Sachs Japan, said: "We have a continued slide in the price of oil, so many people think this might reflect a weak global demand, coupled with the prospect that the Fed may start to raise interest rates later this week. So people are quite cautious, especially going into the year end when nobody wants to take a lot of risks."

The indices that were in the green include:

China's Shanghai Composite Index was trading higher by 1.48% at 3,485.27 as investors gained some confidence after the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), a division of the country's central bank, said the yuan could remain stable in medium to long term.

Separately, on 13 December, Fosun group's missing chairman Guo Guangchang was released from police custody.

India's CNX Nifty was trading higher by 0.30% at 7,634.15.

The indices that were in the red include:

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed below the 5,000 mark at 4,928.60, down 2.01%. The index was weighed down by falling commodity prices.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was at 18,883.42, down 1.80%, despite large non-manufacturers sentiment being up by 2 points to plus 25 for December. The headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment in December was unchanged from the previous quarter at plus 12 points.

South Korea's Kospi was down 1.07% at 1,927.82.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was trading lower by 0.81% at 21,289.62

Among commodities, oil prices continued its downward trend with WTI crude oil trading 0.42% down at $35.47 a barrel while Brent crude was trading 0.55% lower at $37.72 a barrel.