Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Thursday despite the US Federal Reserve announcing a plan to start shrinking its balance sheet and signalled one more rate hike later this year. The Japanese market is rising following the mostly positive cues overnight from Wall Street and on a weaker yen. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting later today and announce its decision on interest rates. The central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at -0.1 percent. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Taiwan and Hong Kong are in positive territory. Bucking the trend, South Korea, and Singapore are lower. The markets in Indonesia are closed for the Islamic New Year.
Nikkei 225 added 84.61 points or 0.42% to 20,395.07, Hang Seng gained 27.2 points or 0.1% to 28,155.00, Taiwan Weighted rose 77.67 points or 0.74% to 10,596.84, and Shanghai Composite was up by 6.94 points or 0.21% to 3,372.94.
On the flip side, KOSPI Index declined 1.47 points or 0.06% to 2,410.73, and Straits Times was down by 4.43 points or 0.14% to 3,213.64.