Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, tracking Wall Street’s decline after the latest Fed report rekindled fears about inflation and rising bond yields. Meanwhile, the Japanese market is declining following the weak cues from Wall Street and as a stronger yen dragged shares of exporters lower. Though, Chinese market is higher after Wall Street fell in the wake of US Federal Reserve minutes pointing to a stronger outlook for economic growth. Among the other Asian markets, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are in positive territory.
Nikkei 225 declined 257.91 points or 1.17% to 21,712.90, Taiwan Weighted dropped 41.97 points or 0.39% to 10,672.47, Jakarta Composite slipped 19.86 points or 0.3% to 6,623.54, Hang Seng dipped 336.12 points or 1.07% to 31,095.77, KOSPI Index contracted 15.3 points or 0.63% to 2,414.35, FTSE Straits Times tumbled 27.14 points or 0.77% to 3,489.09, and Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.35 points or 0.07% to 1,856.82.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 62.4 points or 1.95% to 3,261.56.
