Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday tracking the weak cues overnight from Wall Street after crude oil futures tumbled into negative territory. Investor reaction was muted to news that US index provider MSCI has decided to add Chinese A-shares into its benchmark Emerging Markets Index. MSCI will add 222 China A shares in the index starting in June 2018. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average edged down after a slightly stronger yen sapped risk appetite, while mining stocks underperformed on the back of weaker oil prices. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia are all lower. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 dropped 93.82 points or 0.46% to 20,136.59, Hang Seng slipped 142.6 points or 0.55% to 25,700.44, KOSPI Index contracted 13.67 points or 0.58% to 2,355.56, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.78 points or 0.21% to 1,776.93, Jakarta Composite dipped 1.2 points or 0.02% to 5,790.70, Straits Times declined 21.20 points or 0.66% to 3,209.22, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.97 points or 0.01% to 10,323.49
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 4.7 points or 0.15% to 3,144.71.