All the Asian equity benchmarks barring Jakarta Composite are trading in red terrain in the early deals on Monday, tracking cues from Wall Street where stocks ended notably lower on Friday. The mood is cautious in markets in the region with investors looking for fresh triggers. On the regional front, Japanese markets declined after a selloff in technology shares sent US markets lower and the yen gained against the dollar. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong and Singapore are trading notably lower. Malaysia and South Korea are down marginally, while Indonesia is trading firm.
Hang Seng dropped 135.15 points or 0.60% to 22,374.93, KLSE Composite shed 1.18 points or 0.06% to 1,855.43, Nikkei 225 tumbled 213.65 points or 1.42% to 14,850.12, Straits Times decreased 14.35 points or 0.45% to 3,198.37, KOSPI Composite plunged 4.91 points or 0.25% to 1,983.18 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 41.06 points or 0.46% or 8,847.48.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 69.92 points or 1.44% to 4,927.87.
Chinese markets remained shut for the trade today for Ching Ming Festival holiday.