Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday tracking the negative lead overnight from Wall Street after Federal Reserve officials made the case for raising interest rates. Meanwhile, markets were rattled by a report flagging the possible withdrawal of the European Central Bank's bond buying program. Though, Japanese market is extending gains from the previous session, with exporters advancing on a weaker yen. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan are lower. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong, and Malaysia are in positive territory. The markets in China will remain closed all week.
Straits Times declined 3.64 points or 0.13% to 2,881.00, KOSPI Index dropped 0.02 points to 2,054.84, Taiwan Weighted dipped 26.09 points or 0.28% to 9,261.68, and Jakarta Composite was down by 56.13 points or 1.03% to 5,416.19.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 94.37 points or 0.56% to 16,830.02, Hang Seng rose 106.77 points or 0.45% to 23,796.21, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 2.41 points or 0.15% to 1,663.66.