Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Monday following the weak lead from Wall Street and on news that major oil producing nations failed to reach a deal in Doha during the weekend to freeze oil production. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks tumbled after a stronger yen hurt the outlook for corporate profits, while risk appetites were hurt by earthquakes battering the southern island of Kyushu. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia are also lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 dropped 509.04 points or 3.02% to 16,338.99, Hang Seng declined 256.50 points or 1.20% to 21,059.97, Shanghai Composite dipped 40.32 points or 1.31% to 3,037.80, Taiwan Weighted slipped 39.10 points or 0.45% to 8,661.29, Straits Times contracted 22.11 points or 0.76% to 2,901.83, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 13.61 points or 0.79% to 1,714.38, and KOSPI Index was down by 9.33 points or 0.46% to 2,005.38.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite dropped 12.94 points or 0.27% to 4,836.51.