Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday despite US shares rising on encouraging jobs data, while worries about North Korea and twin hurricane disasters eased. Though, Japanese market is advancing for a third straight day on a weaker yen and following the record closing highs on Wall Street. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and Malaysia are all lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia and South Korea are higher.
Hang Seng dipped 82.29 points or 0.29% to 27,889.95, Straits Times slipped 10.17 points or 0.31% to 3,225.52, Taiwan Weighted dropped 54.14 points or 0.51% to 10,556.21, Shanghai Composite declined 3.1 points or 0.09% to 3,376.39, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.43 points or 0.08% to 1,788.43.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 rose 111.72 points or 0.56% to 19,888.34, KOSPI Index gained 5.04 points or 0.21% to 2,370.51, and Jakarta Composite was up by 5.1 points or 0.09% to 5,877.48.