Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday, as investors treaded cautiously, tracking the mixed economic data from the US and weak commodity prices. Meanwhile, the Japanese market declined as investors remained cautious amid volatility in the Chinese market after last week's surprise devaluation of its currency. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, South Korea and Indonesia are lower. Bucking the trend, Singapore and Malaysia are up with modest gains.
Nikkei 225 declined 27.38 points or 0.13% to 20,592.88, Hang Seng contracted 19.54 points or 0.08% to 23,795.11, Jakarta Composite slipped 50.72 points or 1.11% to 4,534.68, Shanghai Composite crumbled 58.34 points or 1.46% to 3,935.33, KOSPI Index decreased 11.61 points or 0.59% to 1,956.91 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 20.88 points or 0.25% to 8,192.54.
On the flip side, Straits Times gained 7.17 points or 0.23% to 3,074.52 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 8.75 points or 0.56% to 1,581.29.