Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Wednesday, following the positive lead overnight from Wall Street as risk aversion over North Korea's launch of a missile over Japan seemed to ease. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average rebounded, recovering from a near four-month low as Wall Street rose and the yen weakened on receding concerns over North Korea’s firing of a missile over Japan. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are all modestly higher. Bucking the trend, Indonesia, Shanghai, and Malaysia are lower.
Nikkei 225 gained 95.45 points or 0.49% to 19,458.00, Hang Seng rose 218.37 points or 0.79% to 27,983.38, Straits Times added 14.67 points or 0.45% to 3,264.01, Taiwan Weighted increased 47.03 points or 0.45% to 10,543.60, and KOSPI Index was up by 0.51 points or 0.02% to 2,365.25.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite dropped 3.11 points or 0.05% to 5,885.10, Shanghai Composite declined 0.9 points or 0.03% to 3,364.32, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.14 points or 0.01% to 1,761.00.