Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Thursday following the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street after the release of minutes of the US Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting. The minutes of the Fed's September meeting showed that many participants thought another increase in interest rates later this year is ‘likely to be warranted’ if the medium-term outlook remained broadly unchanged. However, they also expressed concern about persistently weak inflation this year. The Japanese market is extending gains, as the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street and a weaker yen lifted investors’ sentiments. Among the other Asian markets, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also higher. Bucking the trend, Shanghai and Malaysia are lower.
Nikkei 225 gained 88.39 points or 0.42% to 20,969.66, Hang Seng added 75.14 points or 0.26% to 28,464.71, Taiwan Weighted rose 47.11 points or 0.44% to 10,688.30, Straits Times strengthened 23.72 points or 0.72% to 3,304.00, KOSPI Index increased 12.15 points or 0.49% to 2,470.31, and Jakarta Composite was up by 24.68 points or 0.42% to 5,907.47.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite dipped 5.63 points or 0.17% to 3,382.66, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.2 points or 0.24% to 1,753.01.