Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading mostly in red in the early deals on Monday as investors took risk stances after a surprise shakeup over the weekend in Saudi Arabia and with President Donald Trump in Asia for more than a week of high-profile meetings. Meanwhile, Hong Kong shares dropped the most in Asia amid signs of weakness in the city’s property market and concern China will step up a campaign to cut leverage. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia and Malaysia are higher.
Nikkei 225 dropped 42.45 points or 0.19% to 22,496.67, Hang Seng declined 166.94 points or 0.58% to 28,436.67, Straits Times slipped 7.70 points or 0.23% to 3,374.61, Taiwan Weighted contracted 21.36 points or 0.2% to 10,779.41, KOSPI Index decreased 16.69 points or 0.65% to 2,541.28, and Shanghai Composite was down by 4.52 points or 0.13% to 3,367.23.
On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 2.73 points or 0.16% to 1,743.66, and Jakarta Composite was up by 6.81 points or 0.11% to 6,046.35.