Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in early deals on Thursday, tracking cues from Wall Street where profit-taking and a somewhat disappointing March housing data dragged down stocks. The Japanese market dropped as the yen gained and U.S. home sales unexpectedly dropped, damping optimism about the world’s largest economy. On the economic front, an index measuring corporate service prices in Japan was up 0.7 percent on year in March at 97.1. The headline figure was in line with expectations and remained unchanged from the previous month. Chinese Shanghai Composite fell after a report yesterday showed a preliminary manufacturing gauge signaled persistent weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong are trading higher, while Shanghai, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea are trading lower.
Shanghai Composite declined by 2.82 points or 0.14% to 2,064.56, KLSE Composite dropped 1.31 points or 0.07% to 1,866.04, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 146.21 points or 1.01% to 14,400.06, Seoul Composite decreased 3.15 points or 0.16% to 1,997.22 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 19.83 points or 0.22% to 8,937.09.
On the flip side, Hang Seng spurted 29.59 points or 0.13% to 22,539.23, Jakarta Composite rose by 6.93 points or 0.14% to 4,900.08 and Straits Times was up by 17.90 points or 0.55% to 3,275.91.
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