Asian stock markets diverged on Thursday, with Tokyo and Seoul tracking gains made the previous day on Wall Street even as a selloff of Chinese equities intensified.

August was a blockbuster month for Chinese stocks, fuelled by surging shares in semiconductor firms including Cambricon -- but the sustained rally has stalled this week.

Shanghai's benchmark index closed the day down 1.3 percent, dragged by a slide of more than 14 percent in Cambricon's stock price.

Hong Kong was down 1.2 percent during the final hour of trading.

Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Taipei all finished the day higher, following gains made on Wall Street Wednesday.

Shares in Japanese motor maker Nidec tumbled 22 percent after it launched a probe into "improper accounting" at its Chinese subsidiary.

The mixed day of t

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