All the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, with investors treading cautiously amid uncertainty about the US economic recovery following some recent downbeat data. Worries about the situation in Iraq too weighed on sentiment to an extent. The Japanese stock markets declined due to concern the Federal Reserve will raise rates sooner than expected and as the yen gained on disappointing US data. Nationwide consumer prices in Japan were up 3.7 percent on year in May - in line with expectations and up from 3.4 percent in April. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan are all trading modestly lower.
Nikkei 225 tumbled by 230.80 points or 1.51% to 15,077.69, Hang Seng declined 49.42 points or 0.21% to 23,148.41, KOSPI Index dropped 4.41 points or 0.22% to 1,990.64, Straits Times slipped by 9.18 points or 0.28% to 3,269.39, Jakarta Composite contracted 20.50 points or 0.42% to 4,851.92, Shanghai Composite shed by 7.06 points or 0.35% to 2,031.61, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 8.70 points or 0.46% to 1,881.27 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 8.81 points or 0.09% to 9,312.13.