Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, tracking the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street and lower commodity prices. While, the Japanese market dipped on profit taking and sliding oil prices, although fears of severe weakening in the Chinese Yuan continued to wane for now, cushioning the losses. Among other markets in the Asian region, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan are marginally lower. Meanwhile, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore are up with modest gains. The markets in South Korea are closed for a public holiday.
Nikkei 225 contracted 65.80 points or 0.32% to 20,529.75, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 30.07 points or 1.85% to 1,591.55, Jakarta Composite crumbled 10.07 points or 0.22% to 4,574.18 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 6.17 points or 0.07% to 8,305.57.
On the flip side, Hang Seng increased 38.30 points or 0.16% to 24,057.10, Shanghai Composite gained 33.02 points or 0.83% to 3,987.57 and Straits Times was up by 18.49 points or 0.60% to 3,110.27.