All the Asian equity benchmarks barring FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday with the overnight weak close on Wall Street and geopolitical concerns due to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Hong Kong weighed on sentiment. Some disappointing economic data from Japan and concerns about a slowdown in China also contributed to the weakness. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market declined sharply, dragged down by some weak economic data and a stronger yen. In economic news, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Japanese industrial output to have declined 1.5 percent on month in August, against forecasts for an increase of 0.2 percent following the 0.4 percent gain in July. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan are notably lower, while Malaysia is modestly higher.
Nikkei 225 tumbled by 194.19 points or 1.19% to 16,116.45, Hang Seng dipped 278.55 points or 1.20% to 22,950.66, KOSPI Index dropped 14.74 points or 0.73% to 2,011.86, Straits Times decreased by 24.06 points or 0.73% to 3,265.66, Jakarta Composite slipped 9.83 points or 0.19% to 5,132.18, Shanghai Composite contracted by 2.41 points or 0.10% to 2,355.30 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 32.34 points or 0.36% to 8,928.42.
On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 5.78 points or 0.31% to 1,852.12.