Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Friday as the US dollar weakened and as investors shrugged off the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street. Crude oil prices edged lower in Asian trades after rising overnight. Nevertheless, investors are cautious ahead of the release of the closely-watched US monthly jobs data to be released later in the day. Employment is expected to increase by about 175,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.7 percent. Though, Japan's Nikkei share average dropped as automakers dragged after incoming US President Donald Trump threatened to slap punitive taxes on Toyota cars imported into the United States from Mexico. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Shanghai and Taiwan are all higher. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is edging lower.
Hang Seng gained 90.07 points or 0.40% to 22,546.76, Straits Times rose 5.34 points or 0.18% to 2,959.48, Jakarta Composite surged 13.77 points or 0.26% to 5,339.28, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI jumped 8.58 points or 0.52% to 1,668.40, Taiwan Weighted added 2.99 points or 0.03% to 9,361.13, and KOSPI Index was up by 6.75 points or 0.33% to 2,048.70.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 declined 105.33 points or 0.54% to 19,415.36, and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.64 points or 0.11% to 3,161.77.