SINGAPORE — Shares in mainland China and Hong Kong led losses in mixed Asia-Pacific trading on Wednesday as investors continue to assess the potential economic ramifications of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The Shanghai compositeChina’s mainland saw a drop of 3.43%, while the Shenzhen componentThe decline was 3.952%. The CSI 300 index which measures the biggest mainland-listed stocks fell 3.51%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng indexIt also suffered large losses, falling 2.83%.

According to official data, China’s producer inflation rose in February. The producer price index increased 8.8% for the month. The February data was close to the 8.7% increase predicted by analysts according to a Reuters survey.

China’s February consumer price index rose 0.9% compared to a year earlier, which is unchanged from January’s growth and was in line with expectations from a Reuters poll.

Other places in Japan are the Nikkei 225While the Topix index dropped 0.3%, it was just fractionally higher.

The S&P/ASX 200Australia saw an increase of 1.04%. Singapore is the top-ranked country in Southeast Asia. Straits Times indexIncreased 1.12%

MSCI’s Asia-Pacific broadest index, which excludes Japan, has fallen by 0.55%.

Due to South Korea’s election, markets in South Korea will be closed Wednesday.

Oil prices jumped to their session highs on Tuesday after President Joe BidenThe U.S. will ban imports of Russian oilThis is a new escalation of the international response to Moscow’s invasion in Ukraine. Britain also declared its plans to end its dependence upon Russian oil imports before the end.

Investors across the region kept an eye on oil prices Wednesday afternoon, when they rose during Asia trading hours.

International benchmark Brent crude futuresThe price of a barrel rose by 1.89% to $130.40 U.S. crude futures1.58 % to $125.65 per barrel

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 184.74points, or 0.56% to 32.632.64. The S&P 500 declined 0.72% to 4,170.70 while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.28% to 12,795.55.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 98.966 — having traded in a range between 98.7 and 99.4 so far this week.

The Japanese yenThe dollar traded at 115.77 dollars, which is lower than the 115.2 levels seen earlier in this week. The Australian dollarChanged hands at $0.7277 after falling from over $0.738 earlier in the week.