Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading mostly lower on Friday as investors shunned riskier assets ahead of the US presidential election next week. Investors are also cautious ahead of the release of the US jobs data for October later in the day. The Labor Department is scheduled to release its closely-watched monthly employment report, which includes both public and private sector jobs. Employment is expected to increase by 178,000 jobs in October after climbing by 156,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 4.9 percent from 5.0 percent. The Japanese market, which was closed on Thursday for a holiday, resumed its downward slide and is notably lower following the negative cues from Wall Street. In addition, the safe-haven strengthened, dragging exporters' shares lower. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea are in negative territory. Shanghai and Taiwan are modestly higher.
Hang Seng dipped 7.89 points or 0.03% to 22,675.62, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 1.96 points or 0.12% to 1,646.12, KOSPI Index decreased 3.99 points or 0.2% to 1,979.81, Straits Times declined 11.43 points or 0.44% to 2,789.84, Nikkei 225 dipped 296.10 points or 1.73% to 16,838.58 and Jakarta Composite was down by 21.88 points or 0.41% to 5,307.62.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite added 0.36 points or 0.01% to 3,129.29 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 5.11 points or 0.06% to 9,072.31.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: