Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday, after initially opening higher following the positive cues from Wall Street and on news that OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Saturday reached their first deal since 2001 to cut oil output. Crude oil prices rose nearly 5 percent in Asian trades following the announcement of the deal. Investors are also cautious ahead of Wednesday's monetary policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve, which is widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter-point. However, Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a fresh one-year high helped by strong Wall Street performance and a weak yen, while investors picked up defensive stocks that were lagging behind in the recent rally. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are all lower. Bucking the trend, South Korea is higher. The markets in Malaysia and Indonesia are closed in observance of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
Straits Times dropped 15.54 points or 0.53% to 2,940.59, Hang Seng declined 255.69 points or 1.12% to 22,505.29, Taiwan Weighted decreased 36.68 points or 0.39% to 9,356.00, and Shanghai Composite was down by 65.52 points or 2.03% to 3,167.37.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 147.88 points or 0.78% to 19,144.25 and KOSPI Index was up by 0.34 points or 0.02% to 2,025.03.