Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday as tensions over North Korea continued to linger in the background. Meanwhile, investors digested China manufacturing and services PMIs, as well as solid US economic data. Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to two-week highs after the dollar rose against the yen helped by bright US economic data, lifting cyclical stocks such as automakers and financial companies. Investors shrugged off weaker-than-expected Japanese industrial output data. Among the other Asian markets, Taiwan, Shanghai, South Korea, Hong Kong and Indonesia are lower. Bucking the trend, Singapore is higher. The stock markets in Malaysia are closed for the National Day holiday.
Hang Seng slipped 164.71 points or 0.59% to 27,929.90, Shanghai Composite dropped 21.79 points or 0.65% to 3,341.83, Taiwan Weighted dipped 11.18 points or 0.11% to 10,558.22, KOSPI Index decreased 8.34 points or 0.35% to 2,363.95, and Jakarta Composite was down by 6.41 points or 0.11% to 5,866.10.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 159.67 points or 0.82% to 19,666.21, and Straits Times was up by 12.90 points or 0.40% to 3,278.16.