By Michael Kitchen LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Asian stock markets extended a broad sell-off Wednesday, with all major bourses trading lower by midday after the People's Bank of China announced a surprise tightening of bank reserve requirements. Fear of less liquidity in the markets sent the Shanghai Composite falling 2.1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 3.4%, and the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell by 2.4%. Other markets also suffered, with Japan's Nikkei 225 Average started the afternoon session off 1.3%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lower by 0.9%. Chinese financials were among the loss-leaders, with Ping An Insurance Group (HK:2318 67.50, -3.50, -4.93%) (CN:601318 50.45, -2.37, -4.48%) (PIAIF 9.20, +0.05, +0.55%) off 4.6% in Hong Kong and down 2.9% in Shanghai, while Bank of China Ltd. (HK:3988 4.01, -0.13, -3.14%) (CN:601988 4.13, -0.19, -4.40%) (BACH.Y 13.55, -0.20, -1.46%) lost 3.1% and 3.3% in Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively. Notable decliners elsewhere included Japan Airlines Corp. (JP:9205 37.00, -30.00, -44.78%) (JALS.Y 1.59, -1.05, -39.77%) , which crashed 81% to trade at 7 yen (about 6 U.S. cents) on fears of delisting and bankruptcy for the carrier, while in Sydney, WorleyParsons Ltd. (AU:WOR 25.99, -3.36, -11.45%) (WYGPF 27.65, +0.40, +1.47%) lost 10.5% after lowering its fiscal 2010 earnings outlook.

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