Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, following the weak cues overnight from Wall Street and comments from Federal Reserve Chief Janet Yellen that Fed will likely hike interest rates before the end of the year. The Japanese market gained despite weak inflation data and lingering worries over slowing growth in China. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia are trading in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Taiwan is marginally higher.
Hang Seng declined 98.77 points or 0.47% to 20,997.21, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 2.03 points or 0.13% to 1,611.14, Shanghai Composite decreased 55.36 points or 1.76% to 3,087.32, Jakarta Composite dipped 44.77 points or 1.05% to 4,199.66, Straits Times slipped 15.96 points or 0.56% to 2,829.78 and KOSPI Index was down by 11.32 points or 0.58% to 1,935.78.