Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, despite following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street and on optimism that Greece will finally reach an agreement with its international creditors. The Japanese market gained, with the overnight gains on Wall Street and a weaker yen boosting sentiment. Among the other markets in the Asian region, Indonesia, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are down with modest losses. Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are higher.
Hang Seng declined 383.15 points or 1.39 % to 27,274.32, Shanghai Composite contracted 87.56 points or 1.78 % to 4,822.42, Jakarta Composite slipped 2.15 points or 0.04 % to 5,128.35, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.69 points or 0.15 % to 1,746.48 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 179.59 points or 1.88 % to 9,376.93.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 rose 56.49 points or 0.28 % to 20,530.00, KOSPI Index surged 5.90 points or 0.29 % to 2,069.06 and Straits Times was up by 3.48 points or 0.10 % to 3,353.32.