Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday despite Wall Street's decline overnight and lackluster regional data while the greenback consolidated gains on the back of upbeat US economic news. The Japanese market gained on domestic earnings optimism after electric motor maker Nidec Corp reported strong quarterly results. Among the other markets in the Asian region, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia are marginally higher. While ,South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are down with modest losses.
Nikkei 225 surged 89.94 points or 0.44% to 20,683.61, Hang Seng gained 156.27 points or 0.62% to 25,438.89, Shanghai Composite rose 52.86 points or 1.31% to 4,078.90, Straits Times added 12.27 points or 0.37% to 3,371.44 and Jakarta Composite was up by 1.66 points or 0.03% to 4,908.35.
On the flip side, KOSPI Index declined 1.15 points or 0.06% to 2,063.58, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted 0.32 points or 0.02% to 1,729.21 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 103.88 points or 1.16% to 8,814.82.