Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Friday as a rally in oil prices reversed and investors remained cautious about the outlook for the global economy. Besides, US stocks snapped a three-day rally and closed lower overnight, too fuelled the downtrend. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks fell, paring the best weekly advance since April 2013 after the yen strengthened against the dollar. Investors are losing their appetite for riskier assets after Wall Street snapped a three-day winning streak and oil prices headed lower.
Nikkei 225 dipped 353.11 points or 2.18% to 15,843.69, Hang Seng dropped 105.71 points or 0.55% to 19,257.37, Jakarta Composite declined 55.05 points or 1.15% to 4,723.74, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted 2.55 points or 0.15% to 1,677.47, Taiwan Weighted crumbled 29.26 points or 0.35% to 8,285.41, KOSPI Index slipped 3.56 points or 0.19% to 1,905.28, Straits Times decreased 11.98 points or 0.45% to 2,645.59, and Shanghai Composite was down by 13.49 points or 0.47% to 2,849.40.