Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Wednesday following Wall Street overnight as investors turned cautious after an impressive start to 2018 across global benchmarks. The Japanese market is losing on a stronger yen, easing from 26-year highs in the previous session. Upbeat Japanese core machinery orders data failed to boost investors’ sentiments. Japan reported a surprise jump in core machinery orders for November with a 5.7% leap, compared to a 1.4% drop expected on month and 4.1% pace annually, compared to a 0.7% decline seen on year. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia are also lower. Bucking the trend, Shanghai and Indonesia are higher.
Nikkei 225 declined 168.23 points or 0.7% to 23,783.58, Hang Seng contracted 180.7 points or 0.57% to 31,724.05, KOSPI Index slipped 8.93 points or 0.35% to 2,512.81, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 2.22 points or 0.12% to 1,823.81, Straits Times dropped 7.95 points or 0.22% to 3,542.26, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 8.35 points or 0.08% to 10,977.76.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 0.07 points to 3,436.66, and Jakarta Composite was up by 4.84 points or 0.08% to 6,434.54.
