Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trend in the early deals on Wednesday with crude oil sharply weaker on US inventory data and markets cautious ahead of what is expected to be the Federal Reserve's first rate hike in a year, with comments on the outlook key. The Japanese market drifted into negative territory despite a closely-watched central bank survey showing that Japanese manufacturers' sentiment improved in the fourth quarter of 2016. The Bank of Japan's Tankan survey showed that an uptick in the sentiment of Japan's major manufacturers, with the headline index at plus-10 in the fourth-quarter, but expected to fall to plus-8 over the next three months. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore are modestly higher. Bucking the trend, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia are lower.
Nikkei 225 added 18.00 points or 0.09% to 19,268.52, Shanghai Composite jumped 2.03 points or 0.06% to 3,157.06, Hang Seng gained 134.71 points or 0.60% to 22,581.41, and Straits Times was up by 4.56 points or 0.15% to 2,959.79.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite slipped 7.81 points or 0.15% to 5,285.81, KOSPI Index dipped 0.30 points or 0.01% to 2,035.68, Taiwan Weighted dropped 12.54 points or 0.13% to 9,369.60, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 3.78 points or 0.23% to 1,641.50.