Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday as a trading program letting more foreign investment into mainland China was delayed. The buying interest is somewhat subdued in most of the markets in the region, amid uncertainty about the near term outlook. Meanwhile, the Japanese market moved up, with Friday's positive close on Wall Street lifted sentiment. Easing worries about the eurozone banking industry, with none of Europe's top banks failing the stress test, also contributed to the positive mood in the market. In economic news, corporate service prices in Japan were up 3.5 percent on year in September, in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous month. On a monthly basis, prices added 0.1 percent after dipping 0.2 percent in August. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea is notably higher. Malaysia is up marginally. Hong Kong and Shanghai are notably lower and Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan are down with a modest loss.
Hang Seng dipped 196.58 points or 0.84% to 23,105.62, Straits Times declined by 1.57 points or 0.05% to 3,220.98, Jakarta Composite slipped 16.99 points or 0.33% to 5,056.08, Shanghai Composite dropped 14.64 points or 0.64% to 2,287.64 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 10.08 points or 0.12% to 8,635.93.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 115.64 points or 0.76% to 15,407.28, KOSPI Index increased by 7.57 points or 0.39% to 1,933.26 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 4.29 points or 0.24% to 1,823.15.