Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday following the sell-off overnight on Wall Street and amid concerns about the political situation in Yemen after Saudi Arabia and its allies began airstrikes in that country. Crude oil prices rose by more than a dollar in early Asian trades. The Japanese market opened lower, as investors sold semi-conductor and other hi-tech shares after their U.S. peers were sold off sharply following soft U.S. economic data. Among the other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia are in negative territory. Meanwhile, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore are higher.
Nikkei 225 dipped 281.85 points or 1.43% to 19,464.35, Jakarta Composite slipped 3.49 points or 0.06% to 5,402.00, KOSPI Index contracted 13.57 points or 0.66% to 2,029.24, Taiwan Weighted crumbled 73.46 points or 0.76% to 9,594.37 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 2.15 points or 0.12% to 1,816.95.
On the flip side, Straits Times surged 9.77 points or 0.29% to 3,428.79, Shanghai Composite rose 12.02 points or 0.33% to 3,672.75 and Hang Seng was up by 33.59 points or 0.14% to 24,561.82.