Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Tuesday following the negative lead overnight from Wall Street as worries about the economic impact of US President Donald Trump's immigration policies continued to weigh on markets. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average fell tracking lower Wall Street on concerns that US President Donald Trump's policies may prove destabilising for the rest of the world. Traders were also reluctant to stake out fresh positions ahead of a policy decision by the Bank of Japan later in the day. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are also lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is higher. Markets in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong remain closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Nikkei 225 dipped 272.44 points or 1.41% to 19,096.41, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 9.65 points or 0.57% to 1,676.71, KOSPI Index slipped 9.25 points or 0.44% to 2,074.34, and Straits Times was down by 27.61 points or 0.90% to 3,037.24.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 1.03 points or 0.02% to 5,303.69.