Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday, following the negative lead from Wall Street on Friday. Further, investors fretted over the potential political and economic fallout from China's capture of a US underwater glider. Worries over China's effort to stem outflows of capital also overshadowed the Hong Kong market following an economic work conference in Beijing late last week. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks fell snapping a nine-day rally as a pullback on Wall Street prompted investors to cash in on outperformers such as exporters and banks.
Nikkei 225 slipped 19.22 points or 0.1% to 19,381.93, Hang Seng dropped 168.87 points or 0.77% to 21,851.88, Taiwan Weighted dipped 68.15 points or 0.73% to 9,258.63, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.54 points or 0.16% to 1,635.25, Jakarta Composite contracted 2.04 points or 0.04% to 5,229.61, KOSPI Index declined 1.45 points or 0.07% to 2,040.79, Shanghai Composite crumbled 0.41 points or 0.01% to 3,122.58, and Straits Times was down by 22.06 points or 0.75% to 2,915.80.