Asian equity benchmarks are exhibiting mixed trend in early deals on Tuesday as traders followed the US presidential debate between candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Meanwhile, traders also kept an eye on an informal OPEC meeting in Algeria. The Japanese market edged higher despite the negative lead overnight from Wall Street. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Indonesia, and Malaysia are all in negative territory. Bucking the trend, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong are up with modest gains. The markets in Taiwan are closed for a holiday.
Shanghai Composite dipped 4.51 points or 0.15% to 2,975.92, Jakarta Composite dropped 5.14 points or 0.10% to 5,347.00, and KLSE Composite was down by 6.21 points or 0.37% to 1,663.29.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 79.37 points or 0.48% to 16,623.93, Hang Seng rose 294.38 points or 1.26% to 23,612.30, KOSPI Index surged 13.18 points or 0.64% to 2,060.29, and Straits Times was up by 7.99 points or 0.28% to 2,857.93.