Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday after British Prime Minister Theresa May's surprise decision to hold early elections. Weak corporate earnings weighed on Wall Street investor sentiment pvernight. Meanwhile, Japanese stocks too edged down in choppy trade as geopolitical tensions soured investor sentiment, while regional banking stocks underperformed as Japanese government bond yields fell to five-month lows. Indonesian markets are closed on Wednesday for the voting.
Nikkei 225 was down by 1.89 points or 0.01% to 18,416.70, Hang Seng decreased 144.64 points or 0.6% to 23,779.90, Taiwan Weighted declined 80.58 points or 0.83% to 9,665.98, Shanghai Composite dropped 33.15 points or 1.04% to 3,163.57, KOSPI Index dipped 7.96 points or 0.37% to 2,140.50, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted 1.54 points or 0.09% to 1,739.06, and Straits Times was down by 16.92 points or 0.54% to 3,120.62.