Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Thursday, following a massive sell-off on Wall Street overnight. Besides, worries about a global economic slowdown and the persistent weakness in crude oil prices also increased risk aversion. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is sharply lower following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street. Investor sentiment was also dented by weak Japanese core machinery orders data. Japan's core machinery orders fell 14.4 per cent in November from the previous month, down for the first time in three months and marking a bigger decline than economists' median estimate for a 7.9 per cent drop.
Nikkei 225 slipped 674.16 points or 3.81% to 17,041.47, Hang Seng dipped 325.92 points or 1.63% to 19,608.96, KOSPI Index dropped 26.74 points or 1.40% to 1,889.54, Shanghai Composite contracted 32.08 points or 1.09 % to 2,917.52, Straits Times declined 47.36 points or 1.76% to 2,649.14, Taiwan Weighted decreased 115.67 points or 1.48% to 7,708.94, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI crumbled 7.75 points or 0.47% to 1,634.79, and Jakarta Composite was down by 55.02 points or 1.21% to 4,482.16.