Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Monday with tensions on the Korean peninsula weighing on sentiment and investors shrugging off better than expected China GDP figures. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei index edged higher despite the strong yen weighing on exporters and weak US yields dragging down financial stocks. Among the other Asian markets, Taiwan, Indonesia, Shanghai, and Singapore are in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Malaysia and South Korea are higher. The Hong Kong market is closed for Easter Monday.
Shanghai Composite dropped 42.86 points or 1.32% to 3,203.21, Jakarta Composite declined 18.86 points or 0.34% to 5,597.69, Taiwan Weighted dipped 16.66 points or 0.17% to 9,716.27, and Straits Times was down by 26.86 points or 0.85% to 3,142.38.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 20.36 points or 0.11% to 18,355.99, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 3.84 points or 0.22% to 1,734.83, and KOSPI Index was up by 9.83 points or 0.46% to 2,144.71.