Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading in red in the early deals on Wednesday, taking cues from Wall Street with investors’ enthusiasm toward US tax changes ebbing as the long-awaited reform bill wound its way through Congress, while higher US Treasury yields underpinned the dollar. Further, China stocks is trading marginally lower as blue-chips firmed but small-caps dropped amid thin year-end trading. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia are lower. Bucking the trend, Nikkei, Malaysia and Taiwan are in positive territory.
Hang Seng declined 10.76 points or 0.04% to 29,242.90, Shanghai Composite dropped 1.31 points or 0.04% to 3,295.23, Straits Times slipped 8.30 points or 0.24% to 3,396.17, KOSPI Index dipped 1.61 points or 0.06% to 2,476.92, and Jakarta Composite was down by 70.01 points or 1.14% to 6,097.66.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 5.18 points or 0.02% to 22,873.18, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 11.73 points or 0.68% to 1,748.68, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 44.82 points or 0.43% to 10,512.16.