Asia takes a step back, Japan's Nikkei 225 slides into ¥22,000.00

• Equities fall in Asia, following suit with other major bourses around the globe on the back of Italian political tensions.
• Risk appetite has evaporated from markets, leaving traders to flee into safe havens.

Asia equity indexes are down across the board for Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 leading index sliding into the 22,000.00 major level as risk aversion brews in global markets.

The hung Italian government that saw the Italian President Sergio Mattarella reject the shaky coalition's populist candidate for economy minister. With Italy possibly heading to a fresh round of elections, political stability within the Eurozone is being called into question, reverberating through financial markets and sending traders into safe havens, scuttling recent risk appetite.

Australia's ASK index is down -0.55% for Wednesday, while the Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index are both down -1.70% and -1.50% respectively; Japan's Nikkei 225 index is also down -1.50% on the day from its opening price.

Nikkei 225 levels to watch

The Nikkei index was rejected from the 22,500.00 level recently, accelerating the index's decline from the 23,000.00 major handle, and traders could soon be seeing a replay of the bearish action that took the Nikkei into a low of 20,318.00 in late March. Risk aversion is sapping further bullishness, and the 23,000.00 major handle, which constrained prices last December, looks set to hold for now, and a bearish continuation from here to could easily fall to 21,500.00 and hit the 50.0 Fibo retracement level, assuming support from the 200-day SMA at 21,700.00 fails to hold.