Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday as investors fretted about the latest flare-up of tensions between the United States and North Korea, sending Seoul shares skidding to two-month lows even as the previous day's rush into safe-haven assets appeared to slow. The Japanese market is lower following the weak cues from Wall Street. Investors also digested the announcement of a third consecutive fall in core machinery orders for June. Japan core machinery orders dropped 1.9% in month of June, well below the 3.7% gain seen and fell at 5.2% pace annually compared to a 1.0% drop seen. As well, producer prices in Japan rose 0.3% in month of July, a tick higher than the 0.2% gain seen and at a 2.6% gain on year, also beating expectations. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea are lower. Bucking the trend, Singapore is higher.
Nikkei 225 declined 32.04 points or 0.16% to 19,706.67, KOSPI Index dropped 19.69 points or 0.83% to 2,348.70, Jakarta Composite slipped 5.75 points or 0.1% to 5,818.26, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 1.17 points or 0.07% to 1,776.77, Shanghai Composite contracted 34.88 points or 1.06% to 3,240.69, Hang Seng decreased 441.96 points or 1.59% to 27,315.13, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 145.98 points or 1.39% to 10,324.40.
On the flip side, Straits Times was up by 6.56 points or 0.20% to 3,324.64.