Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday amid uncertainty whether US interest rates would begin to rise in September and on worries about further volatility in China. The Japanese market declined, hurt by soft domestic industrial output data and concerns the US Federal Reserve might yet raise interest rates next month even as anxiety over a China-led global economic slowdown persists. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are marginally lower while, Indonesia and Taiwan are up with modest gains. The stock markets in Malaysia are closed on Monday for National Day.
Nikkei 225 slipped 318.98 points or 1.67% to 18,817.34, Hang Seng contracted 165.95 points or 0.77% to 21,446.44, Shanghai Composite decreased 84.27 points or 2.61% to 3,148.08, KOSPI Index crumbled 8.56 points or 0.44% to 1,929.11 and Straits Times was down by 17.45 points or 0.59% to 2,938.49.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 8.59 points or 0.11 % to 8,027.77 and Jakarta Composite was up by 31.05 points or 0.70% to 4,477.25.