Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, tracking a mixed finish in the US markets on the back of remarks made by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Besides, weaker commodity prices also weighed on resources stocks. The Japanese market has pared some of its earlier losses and is modestly lower, with the yen retreating against the US dollar. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia are all lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is edging marginally higher.
Nikkei 225 dropped 100.88 points or 0.52% to 19,270.58, KOSPI Index slipped 13.21 points or 0.63% to 2,094.42, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 6.28 points or 0.37% to 1,698.20, Straits Times declined 17.86 points or 0.57% to 3,119.71, Shanghai Composite contracted 9.26 points or 0.28% to 3,242.12, Taiwan Weighted decreased 0.72 points or 0.01% to 9,768.59, and Hang Seng was down by 83.63 points or 0.35% to 24,031.23.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 5.35 points or 0.10% to 5,378.10.