Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Thursday following an uninspiring lead from Wall Street overnight. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut its official cash rate by 25 basis points as per expectations. The Bank of Korea left its benchmark rate unchanged for a sixth consecutive month, as widely expected. The Japanese stocks fell as weak oil prices continued to batter shares of energy companies and as an overnight strengthening of the yen against the dollar hurt sentiment. Among the other Asian markets, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea are down with modest losses. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 slipped 232.77 points or 1.21% to 19,068.30, Hang Seng dropped 14.09 points or 0.06% to 21,789.67, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 6.77 points or 0.41% to 1,652.59, Straits Times decreased 7.15 points or 0.25% to 2,854.04, Taiwan Weighted dipped 43.82 points or 0.53% to 8,185.80, Jakarta Composite crumbled 3.93 points or 0.09% to 4,460.25, and KOSPI Index was down by 6.73 points or 0.35% to 1,941.51.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 6.61 points or 0.19% to 3,479.05.