Asian markets

Asian markets were in the red today, 17 August 2007, but were off their day’s lows. Japan's Nikkei (down 5.42% at 15,273.65), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (down 1.38% at 20,387.13), Shanghai Composite (down 2.28% to 4,656.67), Singapore's Straits Times (down 0.68% at 3,130.71), Taiwan Weighted (down 1.35% to 8,090.29) and South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 3.19% at 1,638.07) declined