Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, with investors mostly treading cautiously following a weak lead from Wall Street where stocks ended notably lower overnight following a bigger than expected rise in US inflation. Concerns over the situation in Ukraine and some profit taking after recent gains also contributed to the lackluster movements in the region. The Japanese stock market declined with a stronger yen, despite better than expected GDP data. Japan's gross domestic product jumped 5.9 percent on year in the first quarter of 2014 that was well above forecasts for an increase of 4.2 percent following the 0.7 percent gain in the previous three months. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Shanghai are trading modestly lower. Indonesia is trading marginally higher, while Singapore and Hong Kong are up marginally.
Shanghai Composite declined 15.12 points or 0.74% to 2,032.79, KLSE Composite slipped by 1.03 points or 0.05% to 1,878.17, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 114.91 points or 0.80% to 14,290.85, Seoul Composite dipped 2.80 points or 0.14% to 2,008.03 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 18.25 points or 0.21% to 8,856.91.
On the flip side, Hang Seng added by 55.75 points or 0.25% to 22,638.52, Jakarta Composite soared 70.24 points or 1.43% to 4,991.64 and Straits Times was up by 6.78 points or 0.21% to 3,265.87.