Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the morning deals on Tuesday, tracking positive cues overnight from Wall Street, though gains are just modest as investors are mostly treading cautiously due to lingering concerns about Chinese growth and worries about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The Japanese stock market traded up as the Yen weakened slightly. Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Composite dropped on concerns new share sales may divert funds from existing equities and slowing economic growth will hurt profits. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore and Taiwan are trading notably higher. Malaysia and South Korea are up marginally, while Shanghai, Hong Kong and Indonesia are trading weak.
KLSE Composite gained by 1.20 points or 0.06% to 1,864.13, Nikkei 225 surged 35.89 points or 0.25% to 14,548.27, Straits Times increased by 12.36 points or 0.38% to 3,268.19, Seoul Composite rose 2.57 points or 0.13% to 2,001.79 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 27.01 points or 0.30% to 8,978.20.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite slipped 1.09 points or 0.05% to 2,064.73, Hang Seng declined by 53.00 points or 0.23% to 22,707.24 and Jakarta Composite was down by 26.17 points or 0.53% to 4,866.12.