Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday, due to the weak cues overnight from Wall Street and lower commodity prices. Crude oil price briefly plunged below $50 overnight for the first time in more than five years and also hit fresh five-and-a-half-year lows. Meanwhile, concerns that Greece may depart the euro zone are also weighing on investor sentiment. Further, the Japanese market is down sharply, with tumbling oil prices and a stronger yen hurting investor sentiment. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan are down with notable losses. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Indonesia are marginally lower.
Jakarta Composite slipped 31.51 points or 0.60% to 5,188.49, Nikkei 225 tumbled 487.64 points or 2.80% to 16,921.07, KOSPI Index dropped by 37.12 points or 1.94% to 1,878.63, Straits Times declined 51.06 points or 1.53% to 3,277.22, Taiwan Weighted shed 213.16 points or 2.27% to 9,063.27, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted 25.29 points or 1.46% to 1,711.33, Hang Seng crumbled 347.76 points or 1.47% to 23,373.56 and Shanghai Composite was down by 34.82 points or 1.04% to 3,315.70.