Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday, despite the positive lead overnight from Wall Street and higher crude oil prices. Further buying interest was remain subdued as investors tread cautiously following the announcement of weak U.S. economic data and ahead of the release of corporate earnings reports. Among the other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai, Taiwan and Indonesia are up with modest gains. Meanwhile, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong are down marginally.
Nikkei 225 dipped 215.65 points or 1.23% to 17,342.39, KOSPI Index contracted 5.84 points or 0.30% to 1,946.84, Hang Seng declined 77.82 points or 0.32% to 24,406.92, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI crumbled 0.92 points or 0.05% to 1,781.26 and Straits Times was down by 17.01 points or 0.50% to 3,406.34.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted surged 56.16 points or 0.60% to 9,443.15, .Jakarta Composite rose 20.88 points or 0.40% to 5,297.12 and Shanghai Composite was up by 13.10 points or 0.42% to 3,141.40.