Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Wednesday, as investors treaded cautiously ahead of the monetary policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve later today. The Fed is widely expected to hold off on raising interest rates, but traders will be paying attention to signals regarding a rate hike later in December. Meanwhile, the Japanese stocks rose as earnings-related news nudged share prices higher, although many investors remained on the sidelines ahead of upcoming US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia are down with modest losses.
Hang Seng dropped 134.42 points or 0.58% to 23,008.31, KOSPI Index dipped 10.60 points or 0.52% to 2,034.05, Shanghai Composite contracted 20.60 points or 0.60% to 3,413.73, Straits Times decreased 11.90 points or 0.39% to 3,040.63, Jakarta Composite slipped 60.93 points or 1.30% to 4,613.12, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 9.43 points or 0.56% to 1,687.52, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 63.25 points or 0.73% to 8,638.07.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 90.04 points or 0.48% to 18,867.08.