Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trend in the early deals on Friday as investors weighed Wall Street's latest gains on strong earnings report against the latest oil production cut, which dragged down crude prices and commodity shares. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is modestly lower, with the fall in crude oil prices and a stronger yen weighing on investors’ sentiments. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia are also lower. Bucking the trend, Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea and Indonesia are modestly higher.
Nikkei 225 dropped 80.17 points or 0.4% to 19,732.96, Taiwan Weighted slipped 29.58 points or 0.29% to 10,078.91, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 1.61 points or 0.09% to 1,772.35 and Straits Times was down by 7.14 points or 0.22% to 3,227.23.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 2.91 points or 0.09% to 3,110.74, Hang Seng increased 6.5 points or 0.03% to 25,637.28, KOSPI Index added 15.55 points or 0.66% to 2,358.48, and Jakarta Composite was up by 17.04 points or 0.3% to 5,720.47.