Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the morning deals on Friday, as concerns over growing instability in Iraq hit sentiment ahead of a flurry of Chinese economic data. On the regional front, the Japanese market dropped with investors pressing sales at several counters and also as the yen gained yesterday and US shares fell amid disappointing retail data and mounting violence in Iraq that too weighed on the sentiments. On the economic front, the Bank of Japan will conclude its monetary policy meeting and announce its decision on interest rates later in the day. The central bank is widely expected to keep rates on hold at between 0 and 0.10 percent. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan are trading weak. Shanghai, Hong Kong is up in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 tumbled by 52.93 points or 0.35% to 14,920.60, KOSPI Index declined 26.99 points or 1.34% to 1,984.66, Straits Times was lower by 1.95 points or 0.06% to 3,291.06, Jakarta Composite 9.76 points or 0.20% to 4,924.65 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.20 points or 0.01% to 1,873.67.
On the flip side, Hang Seng soared 141.29 points or 0.61% to 23,316.31 and Shanghai Composite was up by 18.56 points or 0.90% to 2,070.27.
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