Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday, dragged down by faltering Chinese stocks, while the dollar held modest gains against the euro after upbeat US economic data, with a further dollar rise seen as the Yuan showed signs of stabilizing for now. Meanwhile, the Japanese market rose, as the gains on Wall Street and data showing that the Japanese economy contracted less than expected boosted investor sentiment. Among other markets in the Asian region, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Shanghai, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea are in negative territory. The markets in Indonesia are closed for Independence Day.
Hang Seng declined 236.82 points or 0.99% to 23,754.21, Shanghai Composite contracted 4.73 points or 0.12% to 3,960.61, Straits Times decreased 21.98 points or 0.71% to 3,092.27, KOSPI Index slipped 6.60 points or 0.33% to 1,976.86, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI crumbled 24.18 points or 1.51% to 1,572.64 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 63.63 points or 0.77% to 8,242.01.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 38.48 points or 0.19% to 20,557.93.