Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday, as the negative cues overnight from Wall Street and weak commodity prices offset optimism about corporate earnings results. Japan's Nikkei fell with oil-related shares leading the losses as plummeting oil prices showed no sign of abating on worries about the global economic outlook. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai and Hong Kong are up with modest gains. Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan are marginally lower.
Jakarta Composite slipped 3.86 points or 0.07% to 5,210.50, Nikkei 225 tumbled 163.97 points or 0.96% to 16,923.74, KOSPI Index dropped 0.17 points or 0.01% to 1,916.97, Straits Times dipped 1.83 points or 0.05% to 3,339.24, Taiwan Weighted contracted 41.42 points or 0.45% to 9,189.49 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.68 points or 0.32% to 1,743.22.
On the flip side, Hang Seng surged 55.13 points or 0.23% to 24,271.10 and Shanghai Composite was up by 12.05 points or 0.37% to 3,247.35.