Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Wednesday following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street and as data showed that China's economic growth was in line with expectations. China's gross domestic product or GDP expanded 6.7 percent on year in the third quarter of 2016, in line with expectations and unchanged from the second-quarter reading, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average inched up as investors there waited for more corporate earnings to assess trends. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan are up with modest gains. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong, and Indonesia are edging lower.Crude oil prices too edged higher in Asian trades.
Nikkei 225 added 17.50 points or 0.10% to 16,981.11, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 0.60 points or 0.04% to 1,668.17, KOSPI Index rose 4.90 points or 0.24% to 2,045.33, Shanghai Composite jumped 3.67 points or 0.12% to 3,087.54, Taiwan Weighted increased 62.69 points or 0.68% to 9,285.27, and Straits Times was up by 5.04 points or 0.18% to 2,835.67.
On the flip side, Hang Seng dropped 29.06 points or 0.12% to 23,365.33, and Jakarta Composite was down by 10.94 points or 0.20% to 5,419.10.