Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Friday after a technology-led drop on Wall Street, while US Treasury yields and the dollar were pressured by news Special Counsel Robert Mueller had issued grand jury subpoenas in his investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. Though, the Japanese market is losing as the safe-haven yen strengthened. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia are edging higher. Bucking the trend, Singapore is in negative territory.
Hang Seng gained 10.7 points or 0.04% to 27,541.71, Jakarta Composite added 11.98 points or 0.21% to 5,792.56, Taiwan Weighted rose 28.43 points or 0.27% to 10,498.31, Shanghai Composite strengthen 7.83 points or 0.24% to 3,280.76, KOSPI Index increased 5.08 points or 0.21% to 2,391.93, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.13 points or 0.01% to 1,772.03.
Bucking the trend, Nikkei 225 dropped 64.71 points or 0.32% to 19,964.55, and Straits Times was down by 9.07 points or 0.27% to 3,333.85.