Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged overnight as expected, but signaled another rate hike is imminent despite recent economic weakness. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted unanimously to leave its benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent to 1 percent and continues to project two more rate hikes in 2017. Lower base metal prices weighed on resources stocks. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks fell as investors weighed government efforts to limit the market impact from tighter financial market regulations. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia are also lower. Bucking the trend, South Korea and Indonesia are modestly higher. The Japanese market is closed for the Golden Week holiday.
Hang Seng declined 130.49 points or 0.53% to 24,565.64, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 15.08 points or 0.85% to 1,757.43, Shanghai Composite slipped 2.14 points or 0.07% to 3,133.21, Taiwan Weighted decreased 0.38 points to 9,954.95, and Straits Times was down by 14.34 points or 0.44% to 3,223.47.
On the flip side, KOSPI Index added 16.44 points or 0.74% to 2,236.11, and Jakarta Composite was up by 10.45 points or 0.18% to 5,657.81.