Russia's gas giant Gazprom on Wednesday confirmed receipt of part of the money Ukraine owes it for gas, but Kiev must now pay ahead for the gas to flow.

Ukraine's state-owned energy group Naftogaz said late Tuesday that Kiev has paid $1.45 billion, the first tranche of $3.1 billion of its gas debt.

The Bank of Japan will do whatever it can to beat the plague of deflation, governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday, adding "half-baked" measures would only worsen the problem.

Just days after he took the markets by surprise with a massive enlargement of the Bank's already-hefty stimulus program, Kuroda said the path forwards was clear.

Oil prices extended losses in Asia Wednesday as dealers looked ahead to the release of the latest U.S. supply report after a sell-off in the previous session owing to price cuts by Saudi Arabia.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December delivery fell seven cents to $77.12 while Brent crude for December fell 33 cents to $82.49 in afternoon trade.

The dollar topped 114 yen on Wednesday afternoon in Asia, after results from U.S. midterm elections showed that Democrats suffered a thumping defeat.

In Tokyo afternoon trading, the greenback rose to a seven-year high of 114.06 yen, against 113.63 yen in New York Tuesday.

About 20,000 civil servants in the Gaza Strip went on strike Tuesday to protest the Palestinian unity government's refusal to pay military and security employees of the Islamist movement Hamas.

All ministries and other institutions run by Hamas in Gaza were shut and gated, except for schools, after the walkout by mostly administrative workers, an AFP correspondent said.

Kuwaiti telecoms giant Zain reported a 13.2 percent fall in third quarter net profit Tuesday, blaming rising competition and exchange rate fluctuations.

The company posted net profit of 46 million dinars ($159 million) in the three months to September 30, compared to 53 million dinars ($183.4 million) in the same quarter last year.

Oil prices extended losses in Asia Tuesday after leading global producer Saudi Arabia slashed its export prices for the U.S. market while hiking them for Asia. 

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December delivery fell 59 cents to $78.19 in afternoon trade, below its lowest settlement point since June 2012.

Dubai said Monday it has repaid $1.93 billion raised from Islamic bonds known as "sukuk" and renewed its commitment to pay back billions of dollars worth of debt on time.

Dubai repaid 2.5 billion dirhams ($68 million, 54 million euros) in dirham sukuks and $1.25 billion in dollar sukuks, the official WAM news agency reported, citing a government statement.

The troubled Bank of Cyprus, the largest lender on the recession-hit island, said Monday it has sold its UK loan portfolio for 361 million euros ($451 million) as part of its restructuring.

The loan portfolio -- largely composed of residential and commercial real estate-backed facilities – was sold to Mars Capital Finance and Camael Mortgages, said BoC.

HSBC bank on Monday took a $378 million (302 million euro) charge linked to allegations of foreign exchange market rigging, and posted mixed earnings for the third quarter.

The Asia-focused lender added in a results statement that talks were ongoing with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulator over the allegations and warned that a "significant" fine was likely.