Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, tracking overnight declines on Wall Street as participants eased into the holiday season. Crude oil prices too eased in Asian trades. The Japanese market is closed for the Emperor's birthday. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are modestly lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is marginally higher.
Hang Seng dropped 114.45 points or 0.53% to 21,521.75, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 3.74 points or 0.23% to 1,619.46, Straits Times decreased 11.33 points or 0.39% to 2,870.71, KOSPI Index contracted 0.07 points or 0% to 2,035.66, Taiwan Weighted slipped 30.54 points or 0.33% to 9,088.21, Shanghai Composite was down by 19.11 points or 0.61% to 3,120.45.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 28.02 points or 0.56% to 5,070.89.