Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Wednesday, tracking the overnight sell-off on Wall Street amid geopolitical concerns following North Korea's nuclear test on Sunday. Investors also kept an eye on Hurricane Irma, which is bearing down on the Caribbean islands and Florida, just a week after Hurricane Harvey disrupted refineries along the Texas coast. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average fell to its lowest in more than four months, slipping below a key technical support as risk appetite was sapped by North Korea tensions and the strengthening yen.
Nikkei 225 dropped 45.08 points or 0.23% to 19,340.73, Jakarta Composite dipped 19.14 points or 0.33% to 5,810.84, Shanghai Composite slipped 9.59 points or 0.28% to 3,374.73, KOSPI Index declined 8.55 points or 0.37% to 2,318.07, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.05 points or 0% to 1,769.58, Straits Times contracted 20.20 points or 0.62% to 3,231.06, Hang Seng crumbled 284.35 points or 1.02% to 27,457.00, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 67.25 points or 0.63% to 10,550.59.