China’s CSI 300 hits a four-month low even as most Asia-Pacific markets gain

Mainland China’s CSI 300 closed at its lowest since Feb. 28 on Tuesday, while most Asia-Pacific markets rose.

The index dropped 0.54% to 3,457.90 — a near four-month low — while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was trading flat in its final hour.

Reuters reported the Biden administration was probing three Chinese telecommunications firms over worries that Beijing could access American data through these firms’ cloud and internet businesses in the U.S.

Shares of all three firms named in the Reuters report, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, gained on Tuesday.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.95% higher at 39,173.15 while the broad-based Topix rose 1.72%, leading gains in Asia and closing at 2,787.37 — its highest in three weeks.

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.35% to 2,774.39 while the small-cap Kosdaq closed marginally higher at 841.99, snapping a three-day losing streak.

The Taiwan Weighted Index reversed losses, advancing 0.27% to 22,875.97. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed 1.36% higher at 7,838.8.

Separately, investors in Asia assessed South Korea’s consumer sentiment index for June, as well as Japan’s service sector producer prices.

The services producer price index for Japan climbed 2.5% year on year in May, compared with the 2.7% rise in April.

South Korea’s consumer confidence index climbed in June to 100.9 from 98.4 in May. This comes amid growing optimism about living standards and future household income, as well as domestic economic conditions.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.67%, while the S&P 500 slid 0.31%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw its worst day since April, sliding 1.09%.

Tech darling Nvidia dropped 6.7% on Monday and was one of the biggest contributors to the Nasdaq’s losses. Information technology was the S&P 500’s worst-performing sector, down more than 2%.

—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Yun Li contributed to this report.