Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday, tracking the negative lead overnight from Wall Street and European markets amid uncertainty over the US presidential election, disappointing corporate earnings results and a decline in the price of crude oil. Investors are also cautious ahead of the release of minutes of the latest US Federal Reserve meeting later in the day, which may shed some additional light on the outlook for monetary policy. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks dropped, retreating from a five-week high after Wall Street was hit by weak corporate earnings overnight and as investors braced for Japan Inc.'s reporting season. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia are also in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Taiwan is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 dipped 154.70 points or 0.91% to 16,870.06, Hang Seng dropped 257.60 points or 1.09% to 23,291.92, Shanghai Composite declined 9.75 points or 0.32% to 3,055.50, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 1.99 points or 0.12% to 1,666.73, Straits Times decreased 24.38 points or 0.85% to 2,831.75, KOSPI Index contracted 4.23 points or 0.21% to 2,027.70, and Jakarta Composite was down by 12.64 points or 0.23% to 5,369.35.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was up by 24.98 points or 0.27% to 9,244.80.