Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, following the negative lead overnight from Wall Street. Investors are also treading cautiously ahead of the US Labor Department's monthly jobs report due later in the day, which could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates. The Japanese market gained despite investors took profits from recent high flyers such as drug makers, railways and retailers ahead of US jobs data due later in the day. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are down with modest losses. Meanwhile, Shanghai and Hong Kong are higher. The Singapore market is closed for a public holiday.
FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 15.41 points or 0.91% to 1,679.23, Jakarta Composite dropped 34.04 points or 0.71% to 4,772.53, Taiwan Weighted contracted 25.17 points or 0.30% to 8,424.39 and KOSPI Index was down by 5.01 points or 0.25% to 2,008.28.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 increased by 53.59 points or 0.26% to 20,718.03, Hang Seng added 228.76 points or 0.94% to 24,604.04 and Shanghai Composite was up by 69.49 points or 1.90% to 3,731.03.