Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Friday following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street. Besides, disappointment over the Bank of Japan holding back on additional stimulus and worries about global economic growth, also fuelled the downtrend. Hong Kong’s stocks dropped the most among Asian markets after Chinese energy producers reported poor results and US equities slumped. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is closed for the Showa Day holiday.
Hang Seng declined 288.56 points or 1.35% to 21,099.47, Straits Times dropped 13.68 points or 0.48% to 2,848.62, KOSPI Index slipped 10.45 points or 0.52% to 1,990.48, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted 5.92 points or 0.35% to 1,668.84, Taiwan Weighted decreased 102.69 points or 1.21% to 8,371.18, Shanghai Composite crumbled 9.06 points or 0.31% to 2,936.53, and Jakarta Composite was down by 17.83 points or 0.37% to 4,830.56.