Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Monday despite positive cues from Wall Street and Europe after oil prices rallied sharply on Friday. China shares jumped amid expectations that soft inflation leaves room for authorities to stimulate the economy through further monetary easing. China reported its inflation rate in March at 2.3 percent, unchanged from February, while the producer price index or wholesale prices paid at the factory gate dropped 4.3 percent. Japanese stocks fell as the yen rallied for a seventh day and a report showed machine orders dropped for the first time in three months. Japan's core private-sector machinery orders retreated by 9.2 percent in February, following a 15 percent gain in January that saw large orders from the steel industry. Among the other Asian markets, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are down with modest losses. Bucking the trend, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 declined 238.13 points or 1.51% to 15,583.39, Jakarta Composite dropped 41.18 points or 0.85% to 4,805.52, Straits Times contracted 4.22 points or 0.15% to 2,804.10, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 4.72 points or 0.27% to 1,713.68, and KOSPI Index was down by 3.56 points or 0.18% to 1,968.49.
On the flip side, Hang Seng added 103.48 points or 0.51% to 20,473.88, Shanghai Composite surged 54.45 points or 1.82% to 3,039.41, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 12.42 points or 0.15% to 8,553.92.