Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday despite the key risk events later in the day, with apparent land-to-ship missiles fired by North Korea in the morning added to the mix. The Japanese market is higher following the positive cues from Wall Street and on a weaker yen. Nevertheless, investors remain cautious ahead of key political and economic events on Thursday. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong Taiwan, and Shanghai are slightly higher. Bucking the trend, South Korea is lower.
Nikkei 225 added 1.01 points or 0.01% to 19,985.63, Jakarta Composite gained 1.3 points or 0.02% to 5,718.63, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.86 points or 0.1% to 1,787.78, Shanghai Composite rose 4.49 points or 0.14% to 3,144.81, Taiwan Weighted increased 18.32 points or 0.18% to 10,228.31, Hang Seng spurt 53.28 points or 0.21% to 26,027.44, and Straits Times was up by 8.18 points or 0.25% to 3,238.67.
On the flip side, KOSPI Index was down by 7.2 points or 0.31% to 2,352.94.