Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Wednesday as investor attention turned to upcoming remarks from a European Central Bank official. However, Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a three-week high after US stocks rose and the dollar remained steady against the yen, lifting overall market sentiment. Among the other Asian market, Shanghai, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan are all marginally lower. Bucking the trend, South Korea is higher.
Hang Seng dropped 237.20 points or 1.11% to 21,199.01, Shanghai Composite dipped 77.51 points or 2.55% to 2,965.31, Taiwan Weighted slipped 107.23 points or 1.24% to 8,526.49, Straits Times contracted 12.69 points or 0.43% to 2,939.12, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.32 points or 0.25% to 1,706.83, and Jakarta Composite was down by 10.42 points or 0.21% to 4,871.51.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 42.33 points or 0.25% to 16,916.77, and KOSPI Index was up by 1.49 points or 0.07% to 2,012.85.