All the major Asian equity benchmarks barring Jakarta Composite are trading higher in the early deals on Monday with investors treading cautiously, following another contraction in Chinese manufacturing sector and a weak lead from Wall Street where stocks ended on a negative note last Friday with an upbeat jobs report raising concerns about the outlook for interest rates. Chinese Shanghai Composite fell, led by property and metal companies, after weaker-than-estimated manufacturing data and a plunge in home sales spurred concern that economic growth will slow. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong was down sharply, while Shanghai is trading notably lower. Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore are down with modest losses, while Indonesia is up marginally.
Shanghai Composite dropped 14.82 points or 0.73% to 2,011.54, Hang Seng declined by 343.28 points or 1.54% to 21,917.39, KLSE Composite slipped 6.38 points or 0.34% to 1,862.70, Straits Times shed by 5.53 points or 0.17% to 3,247.02 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 3.46 points or 0.04% to 8,863.86.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 12.99 points or 0.27% to 4,851.75.
Japan and South Korea markets remained shut for the trade today for Children's Day holiday.