Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday following the weak cues overnight from Wall Street, while lower commodity prices dragged down resource stocks. Further, weak Chinese and Japanese economic data added to heightened worries about slackening global growth, sapping investors' appetite for riskier assets. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average fell as a surprise drop in machinery data heightened concerns about the economy, further spooking investors who rushed to book profits a day after the market posted its biggest one-day gain in nearly seven years. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are down with modest losses. Bucking the trend, South Korea is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 declined 606.61 points or 3.23% to 18,163.90, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI crumbled 3.74 points or 0.23% to 1,599.62, Straits Times dropped 41.25 points or 1.41% to 2,886.93, Jakarta Composite contracted 16.84 points or 0.39% to 4,330.44, Shanghai Composite dipped 31.16 points or 0.96% to 3,211.93, Hang Seng decreased 476.46 points or 2.15% to 21,654.85 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 32.41 points or 0.39% to 8,254.51.
On the flip side, KOSPI Index was up by 6.85 points or 0.35% to 1,941.05.