Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday after Wall Street retraced from record highs overnight amid renewed expectations of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve later this month. Resources stocks were weighed down by lower commodity prices as the US dollar strengthened. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks edged down as investors took profits before the weekend, after hitting a 14-month high the previous day on rising expectations for a US interest rate hike this month.
Nikkei 225 dipped 126.55 points or 0.65% to 19,438.25, Jakarta Composite slipped 11.87 points or 0.22% to 5,396.38, KOSPI Index contracted 27.45 points or 1.31% to 2,075.20, Taiwan Weighted crumbled 39.12 points or 0.40% to 9,652.68, Straits Times dropped 27.68 points or 0.88% to 3,108.80, Shanghai Composite declined 12.05 points or 0.37% to 3,217.98, Hang Seng decreased 146.98 points or 0.62% to 23,581.09, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 7.08 points or 0.41% to 1,708.59.