Most of the Asian stock markets are trading lower in early deals on Thursday following weaker than expected trade data from China. Meanwhile, Japanese market rose as investors indulged in some hectic bargain hunting, shrugging off weak core machine orders data and after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s meeting which allayed concerns about the timing of interest-rate increases. In the economic reports, core machine orders in Japan fell a seasonally adjusted 8.8 percent on month in February that was well shy of forecasts for a contraction of 3.0 percent following the 13.4 percent surge in January. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong and Malaysia are up marginally, while Singapore, Shanghai, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia are weak.
Shanghai Composite declined 0.98 points or 0.05% to 2,104.26, Jakarta Composite dropped by 155.99 points or 3.17% to 4,765.41, Straits Times contracted 15.54 points or 0.48% to 3,194.38, KOSPI Composite slipped 0.60 points or 0.03% to 1,998.35 and 12.24 points or 0.14% to 8,918.33.
On the flip side, Hang Seng increased 31.08 points or 0.14% to 22,874.25, KLSE Composite rose 0.22 points or 0.01% to 1,855.97 and Nikkei 225 soared 11.40 points or 0.08% to 14,311.09.
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