Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday, amid concerns over North Korea's latest ballistic missile test which landed in the Sea of Japan. Investors also remained cautious ahead of some key events this week, including the release of minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, the US-China summit starting Thursday, and the closely-watched monthly US jobs report on Friday. The Japanese market is lower despite the positive cues overnight from Wall Street and on a weaker yen. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong Singapore, and Malaysia are lower. Bucking the trend, Taiwan, and Shanghai is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 dipped 9.66 points or 0.05% to 18,800.59, Jakarta Composite slipped 1.79 points or 0.03% to 5,650.04, KOSPI Index contracted 7.12 points or 0.33% to 2,153.98, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 4.45 points or 0.25% to 1,742.74, Straits Times dropped 19.94 points or 0.63% to 3,159.12, and Hang Seng was down by 45.51 points or 0.19% to 24,215.97.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted added 87.96 points or 0.90% to 9,899.48 and Shanghai Composite was up by 34.16 points or 1.06% to 3,256.67.