Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading in red in the early deals on Wednesday following the negative lead from Wall Street amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for US tax reform and the overnight fall in crude oil prices. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped to a two-week low, with most sectors in negative territory as investors took profit on a rally that pushed local stocks about 20 percent higher over the past two months. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are also lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia is in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 dipped 334.23 points or 1.49% to 22,045.78, Straits Times dropped 28.57 points or 0.84% to 3,370.52, Hang Seng contracted 214.68 points or 0.74% to 28,937.44, Taiwan Weighted slipped 68.57 points or 0.64% to 10,618.61, Shanghai Composite declined 24.51 points or 0.71% to 3,405.04, KOSPI Index decreased 5.61 points or 0.22% to 2,521.03, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 2.55 points or 0.15% to 1,731.06.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 9.96 points or 0.17% to 5,998.25.