Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday despite the mostly positive cues overnight from Wall Street and higher crude oil prices, with investors turning cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decision due later in the day. News that North Korea launched a ballistic missile that may have landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone also weighed on investor sentiment. Japan's Nikkei share average rose as upbeat US data lifted the dollar against the yen, but geopolitical concerns soured sentiment after North Korea launched a missile. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Shanghai, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia are all in modestly lower.
Hang Seng declined 286.23 points or 1.11% to 25,497.94, Taiwan Weighted decreased 48.42 points or 0.47% to 10,364.37, Jakarta Composite dropped 32.86 points or 0.56% to 5,877.38, Shanghai Composite dipped 15.88 points or 0.5% to 3,180.03, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted 5.08 points or 0.29% to 1,763.59, KOSPI Index slipped 4.93 points or 0.21% to 2,389.55, and Straits Times was down by 8.13 points or 0.25% to 3,215.33.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 33.38 points or 0.17% to 20,089.18.