Asian equity indices are trading higher in the early deals on Wednesday as optimism that trade ties between Washington and Beijing were on the mend gave way to questions about the next phase of the diplomatic tit-for-tat between the two countries. Though, Japanese stocks edged lower in choppy trade following a strong rally the previous day, but index-heavy SoftBank jumped after sources said that Sprint is in new talks to merge with T-Mobile. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Shanghai, Taiwan, and Malaysia are higher. Bucking the trend, South Korea is in negative territory.
Hang Seng rose 231.98 points or 0.75% to 30,960.72, Straits Times gained 15.71 points or 0.45% to 3,482.09, Jakarta Composite added 31.64 points or 0.5% to 6,357.45, Shanghai Composite increased 28.75 points or 0.9% to 3,219.07, Taiwan Weighted spurt 27.89 points or 0.26% to 10,955.07, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 8.04 points or 0.43% to 1,869.02.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 declined 57.23 points or 0.26% to 21,737.09, and KOSPI Index down by 3.56 points or 0.15% to 2,447.18.
