Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday as investors stuck to a holding pattern as they awaited more corporate earnings and a European Central Bank policy meeting later in the week. However, Stocks in Japan rose for their sixth straight session amid continued expectations that the Bank of Japan will soon roll out stimulus for the economy. Among the other Asian markets, Malaysia, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore are lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia and Taiwan are in positive territory.
Hang Seng dropped 136.78 points or 0.63% to 21,666.40, Straits Times dipped 20.98 points or 0.72% to 2,907.78, KOSPI Index slipped 8.82 points or 0.44% to 2,012.29, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 1.44 points or 0.09% to 1,669.40, and Shanghai Composite was down by 21.62 points or 0.71% to 3,021.95.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 105.07 points or 0.64% to 16,602.92, Taiwan Weighted gained 1.44 points or 0.02% to 9,009.65, and Jakarta Composite was up by 36.80 points or 0.72% to 5,164.30.