Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday after Wall Street continued to pull back from record highs ahead of Friday's closely-watched U.S. jobs data, while the nervous euro languished at an 11-year low prior to the European Central Bank's policy meeting. Further, Japan's Nikkei share average edged up, after the central bank bought more exchange-traded funds, but gains were limited by investor caution ahead of U.S. jobs data on Friday. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are in negative territory. Meanwhile, South Korea and Indonesia are marginally higher.
Hang Seng contracted 138.55 points or 0.57% to 24,326.83, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 16.05 points or 0.88% to 1,809.49, Straits Times dipped 4.68 points or 0.14% to 3,410.85, Taiwan Weighted dropped 14.70 points or 0.15% to 9,607.03 and Shanghai Composite was down by 32.85 points or 1.00% to 3,246.68.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 rose 20.72 points or 0.11% to 18,724.32, KOSPI Index gained 0.79 points or 0.04% to 1,999.08 and Jakarta Composite was up by 23.67 points or 0.43% to 5,471.73.