Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the morning deals on Thursday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street after the minutes of the latest US Federal Reserve meeting hinted that the Fed is in no hurry to hike interest rates. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market dropped in morning deals, while strong gains on Wall Street overnight and data showing a notable increase in Japanese core machine orders in August limited the downside. On the economic front, core machine orders in Japan climbed 4.7 percent on month in August that topped forecasts for an increase of 0.5 percent following the 3.5 percent gain in July. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia are trading notably higher. Taiwan and Malaysia are up marginally, while Shanghai is trading weak.
Hang Seng increased by 214.51 points or 0.92% to 23,477.84, Straits Times gained 21.45 points or 0.66% to 3,248.16, Jakarta Composite surged 50.03 points or 1.01% to 5,008.54, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 20.43 points or 0.23% to 8,975.61.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 60.29 points or 0.39% to 15,535.69 and Shanghai Composite was down by 13.49 points or 0.57% to 2,369.30.
The South Korean market remained shut for the trade today for the Hangul Proclamation Holiday,