Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday, following the weak lead from Wall Street and amid concerns about the outlook for the ongoing Greek debt negotiations. The Japanese market declined imperiling an 11-day winning streak, after US stocks languished as weak economic data dented investor sentiment, triggering profit-taking on exporters. Among the other markets in the Asian region, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are lower. Bucking the trend, Shanghai and Hong Kong are marginally higher.
Nikkei 225 slipped 68.95 points or 0.34% to 20,494.20, Jakarta Composite declined 27.87 points or 0.53% to 5,188.51, KOSPI Index contracted 15.51 points or 0.73% to 2,099.29, Taiwan Weighted crumbled 60.37 points or 0.62% to 9,640.70 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 11.59 points or 0.66% to 1,735.93.
On the flip side, Hang Seng gained 181.42 points or 0.66% to 27,605.61 and Shanghai Composite was up by 127.58 points or 2.77% to 4,739.33.