Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, AP. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5% to 2,812.23 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo declined 0.5% to 19,550.09. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 0.7% at 24,260.90. The S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney lost 0.4% to 5,466.70 while India's Sensex opened up 2.5% at 31,446.28. New Zealand advanced while Jakarta declined and Singapore was unchanged. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 45 cents to $20.56 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $2.30, or 10.3%, on Tuesday to close at $20.11. Brent crude, the standard for international oils, advanced 40 cents to $30.00 per barrel in London. It dropped $2.14 the previous session to close at $29.60 a barrel. The dollar declined to 107.11 yen from Tuesday's 107.17 yen. The euro retreated to $1.0966 from $1.0981.