Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday amid renewed jitters over North Korea and conflicting signals from President Donald Trump about US trade policy. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average ticked down further from recent five-week highs as a relief rally driven by fading political worries in Europe fizzled ahead of Golden Week holidays next week. Investors also digested a raft of local economic data, including weak industrial output data. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia are all in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Malaysia and Singapore are higher.
Nikkei 225 dropped 36.62 points or 0.19% to 19,215.25, Hang Seng decreased 110.21 points or 0.45% to 24,588.27, Jakarta Composite declined 11.35 points or 0.2% to 5,695.68, Shanghai Composite dipped 10.64 points or 0.34% to 3,141.55, Taiwan Weighted slipped 9.96 points or 0.1% to 9,850.66, and KOSPI Index was down by 3.39 points or 0.15% to 2,206.07,
On the flip side, Straits Times added 3.61 points or 0.11% to 3,174.97, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 1.62 points or 0.09% to 1,769.54.