Hong Kong equities fell on Wednesday, in line with a fall in Asian shares, on increasing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea after the two countries exchanged threats.
Global risk appetite faltered resulting in investors piling onto havens such as U.S. Treasuries, gold and the yen after Pyongyang saying it is considering plans to attack U.S. island territory Guam.
The threat from the Korean peninsula came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said in response to a Washington Post report on North Korea's nuclear capabilities that further threats from the country would be met with "fire and fury."
At 0433 GMT, the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.59 percent or 410 points to 25,373 while China's Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.4 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5 percent, while Japan's Nikkei was 1.3 percent lower as the stronger yen sapped investors' appetite.
Among the laggards, Tencent Holdings fell 0.5 percent, China Construction Bank dropped 1.7 percent while Ping An Insurance Group lost 1.6 percent.
In U.S. markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2 per cent to 22,085.3 on Tuesday, ending its nine-day record high winning streak.
Among the key events looming this week includes, U.K. factory output for June is due Thursday. Also New York Fed boss Bill Dudley will speak on Thursday.
