Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday, tracking the negative cues overnight from Wall Street and European markets amid mounting concerns about the health of the Chinese economy. In addition, weaker commodity prices dragged down resource stocks. Meanwhile, the Japan's Nikkei share average tumbled more than 2 percent to an 8-month low as fears about China's cooling economy pummeled shares of commodity and machinery firms. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are also lower. Bucking the trend, Taiwan is in positive territory. The South Korean market is closed for the Harvest Festival.
Nikkei 225 dipped 637.27 points or 3.61% to 17,007.84, Hang Seng dropped 759.59 points or 3.59% to 20,426.73, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 9.96 points or 0.62% to 1,598.47, Shanghai Composite slipped 56.91 points or 1.84% to 3,043.85, Jakarta Composite declined 50.29 points or 1.22% to 4,070.22 and Straits Times was down by 43.30 points or 1.55% to 2,748.62.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was up by 9.25 points or 0.11% to 8,132.35.