Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, despite a positive lead from Wall Street where stocks posted notable gains overnight. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market is trading lower even though Yen weakened. In the economy news, Japan will see preliminary September figures for its leading and coincident indexes. The leading index is expected to show a score of 105.5, up from 104.4 in August - while the coincident is tipped to climb to 109.8 from 108.3. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia, South Korea, Shanghai, Malaysia and Taiwan are trading lower, while Hong Kong and Singapore are trading higher.
Nikkei 225 tumbled by 125.92 points or 0.74% to 16,811.40, KOSPI Index slipped 1.38 points or 0.07% to 1,930.05, Jakarta Composite contracted by 2.99 points or 0.06% to 5,063.84, Shanghai Composite declined by 12.49 points or 0.52% to 2,406.77, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 3.96 points or 0.22% to 1,835.33 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 38.09 points or 0.42% to 8,924.51.
On the flip side, Hang Seng rose 296.02 points or 1.25% to 23,998.06 and Straits Times was up by 11.51 points or 0.35% to 3,299.17.