Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, but were still on track for a solid weekly rise, as investors awaited more US data later in the session for clues on the timing of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate hike. The Japanese market gained after Wall Street surged on receding worries about a US interest rate hike, while Nikon Corp tumbled after releasing a weak earnings forecast. Among the other markets in the Asian region, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are marginally lower. While, Japan and Hong Kong are higher
Jakarta Composite declined 19.96 points or 0.38 % to 5,226.18, KOSPI Index contracted 9.97 points or 0.47 % to 2,110.36, Taiwan Weighted crumbled 17.23 points or 0.18 % to 9,593.60, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.14 points or 0.12 % to 1,805.41, Straits Times slipped 3.08 points or 0.09 % to 3,452.70 and Shanghai Composite was down by 63.09 points or 1.44 % to 4,315.22.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 90.84 points or 0.46 % to 19,661.08 and Hang Seng was up by 133.20 points or 0.49 % to 27,419.75.