Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trend in the early deals on Friday following the modest losses on Wall Street and as investors continued to digest the possibility of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in December. Lower commodity prices weighed on resource stocks. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks slipped after US stocks declined and the dollar weakened against the yen as investors begin to grapple with higher borrowing costs expected to follow the US Federal Reserve's December policy meeting. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are up with modest gains. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 declined 89.23 points or 0.45% to 19,770.58, Hang Seng dropped 43.25 points or 0.19% to 22,456.97, Straits Times slipped 15.53 points or 0.53% to 2,904.30, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 24.38 points or 0.29% to 8,452.82.
On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 1.76 points or 0.11% to 1,661.82, Shanghai Composite surged 2.59 points or 0.07% to 3,619.65, KOSPI Index increased 2.37 points or 0.12% to 1,991.28, and Jakarta Composite was up by 18.54 points or 0.41% to 4,537.48.