Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday after crude oil prices rebounded from an overnight sell-off and Japan reported stronger-than-expected exports in March. Easing tensions over North Korea too helped brighten the mood after weeks of jitters over the US response to Pyongyang's missile tests and nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is modestly higher, with a weaker yen and better than expected trade data lifting investor sentiment. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia are all modestly higher. Bucking the trend, Taiwan, Shanghai, and Indonesia are lower.
Nikkei 225 added 49.58 points or 0.27% to 18,481.78, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 2.6 points or 0.15% to 1,741.55, KOSPI Index increased 7.85 points or 0.37% to 2,146.25, Straits Times spurt 7.69 points or 0.25% to 3,133.97, and Hang Seng was up by 95.51 points or 0.4% to 23,921.39.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 12.14 points or 0.13% to 9,627.80, Shanghai Composite declined 2.16 points or 0.07% to 3,168.53, and Jakarta Composite was down by 1.78 points or 0.03% to 5,604.74.