Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street after US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen warned about high stock valuations. The continued increase in bond yields also weighed on investor sentiment. The Japanese market declined as a worldwide drop in government bond prices spread unease to Japanese stocks during this week's national holidays, compounded by a sell-off on Wall Street. Among the other markets in the Asian region, Japan, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia are lower.
Nikkei 225 contracted 224.22 points or 1.15% to 19,307.41, Jakarta Composite slipped 15.36 points or 0.30% to 5,169.59, KOSPI Index declined 17.26 points or 0.82% to 2,087.32, Taiwan Weighted decreased 88.38 points or 0.90% to 9,729.82, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 3.97 points or 0.22% to 1,817.00, Straits Times crumbled 24.05 points or 0.70% to 3,435.74, Shanghai Composite tumbled 59.63 points or 1.41% to 4,169.64 and Hang Seng was down by 159.63 points or 0.58% to 27,481.28.