Hong Kong's benchmark stock index completed its biggest quarterly drop in more than six years on concern credit market losses will widen.

China's central bank announced a hike in its bank reserve ratio, and the world's biggest passenger plane took off this week from Singapore for its inaugural commercial flight to London.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Wednesday told a congressional panel that it is in China's interest to permit its currency's exchange value to be determined by market forces.

China needs a legal framework to strengthen the supervision over the financial market, the central bank said in a report released on Wednesday.