Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday following the mixed lead overnight from Wall Street and the fall in crude oil prices. Scheduled meetings from US Federal Reserve also kept investors on the sidelines amid uncertainty over the outlook for global monetary policy. Meanwhile, a stronger yen pressured Japanese stocks ahead of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy decision next week. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore and Malaysia are lower. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong and Indonesia are in positive territory. The markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan are closed for public holidays.
Nikkei 225 dropped 205.04 points or 1.23% to 16,409.20, Straits Times slipped 11.33 points or 0.40% to 2,798.02, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.96 points or 0.36% to 1,655.43.
On the flip side, Hang Seng gained 132.20 points or 0.57% to 23,322.84, and Jakarta Composite was up by 56.10 points or 1.09% to 5,202.14.