Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday, as investors mulled a conflicting batch of economic data from the U.S. and China, the world's two biggest economies. Japan's Nikkei share average edged down in choppy trade as U.S. shares languished, but losses were limited by investor appetite for stocks before they go ex-dividend later this week. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea, Shanghai, Indonesia and Taiwan are trading marginally lower, while Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia are trading slightly higher.
Nikkei 225 slipped 50.75 points or 0.26% to 19,662.70, Jakarta Composite declined 41.94 points or 0.77% to 5,405.71, KOSPI Index dipped 2.12 points or 0.10% to 2,039.25, Taiwan Weighted contracted 72.65 points or 0.75% to 9,659.04 and Shanghai Composite was down by 38.84 points or 1.05% to 3,652.57.
On the flip side, Straits Times added 4.07 points or 0.12% to 3,417.33, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 5.39 points or 0.30% to 1,819.43 and Hang Seng was up by 91.17 points or 0.37% to 24,490.77.