Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday, tracking the weak cues overnight from Wall Street amid uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve's highly-anticipated policy decision later in the week. Further, investors are also treading cautiously following news of a leadership change in Australia and ahead of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy decision due later in the day. The Japanese market gained as food processing firms rallied on a report of a merger, while most investors were fairly relaxed ahead of the outcome of the Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are also lower. Bucking the trend, Malaysia is marginally higher.
Hang Seng declined 61.51 points or 0.29% to 21,500.39, Straits Times dropped 22.04 points or 0.77% to 2,849.43, Shanghai Composite dipped 78.65 points or 2.53% to 3,036.15, Taiwan Weighted contracted 65.70 points or 0.79% to 8,241.59, KOSPI Index slipped 0.60 points or 0.03% to 1,930.86 and Jakarta Composite was down by 48.99 points or 1.12% to 4,341.38.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 increased 166.79 points or 0.93% to 18,132.49 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 7.91 points or 0.48% to 1,647.54.