Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday, following news that the US has launched cruise missile attacks against Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack by Bashar al-Assad's regime that killed scores of civilians earlier in the week. Safe-haven assets such as the yen and gold as well as crude oil prices rallied in response to the news. Investors also remained cautious as they focused on the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as the monthly US jobs report due later in the day. Japan's Nikkei share average is higher despite a US missile strike on Syria hurt broader risk sentiment. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are also in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is higher.
Jakarta Composite dropped 34.94 points or 0.62% to 5,645.30, KOSPI Index contracted 1.59 points or 0.07% to 2,151.16, Taiwan Weighted slipped 40.45 points or 0.41% to 9,857.35, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 1.79 points or 0.10% to 1,737.77, Straits Times declined 17.45 points or 0.55% to 3,158.14, and Hang Seng was down by 136.61 points or 0.56% to 24,137.11.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 98.90 points or 0.53% to 18,695.96, and Shanghai Composite was up by 8.09 points or 0.25% to 3,289.09.