The Asian equity benchmarks are showing mixed trend in the early deals on Friday following the mixed cues from Wall Street. Investors are also treading cautiously after the US-Mexico crisis deepened. Amid a dispute over who will pay for a wall on the US-Mexico border, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto pulled out of a planned meeting next week with US President Donald Trump. Though, Japanese market is rising for a third straight day on the back of a weaker yen. Investors also digested Japanese inflation data, which showed that core consumer prices fell in December for the tenth straight month. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia are moderately lower. Bucking the trend, Singapore is modestly higher. The markets in South Korea, Taiwan and China are closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Hang Seng dropped 13.39 points or 0.06% to 23,360.78, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 5.86 points or 0.35% to 1,686.36 and Jakarta Composite was down by 5.17 points or 0.10% to 5,312.47.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 65.28 points or 0.34% to 19,467.67, and Straits Times was up by 6.46 points or 0.21% to 3,058.24.