Most of the Asian equity indices are trading lower in the early deals on Monday, following the negative lead from Wall Street on Friday as technology stocks declined. Investors are cautious as they kept an eye on rising U.S. bond yields and awaited earnings results from several major companies this week. Japan’s Nikkei share average edged lower after index-heavy stocks such as SoftBank and Terumo lost ground, offsetting gains in financial stocks, which rallied after U.S. yields rose. Meanwhile, China and Hong Kong stocks dipped lower as tech firms faced pressure amid the ZTE ban, while investors found some solace on the geopolitical front. Among the other Asian markets, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan are lower. Bucking the trend, Singapore is higher.
Nikkei 225 dropped 68.67 points or 0.31% to 22,093.57, Jakarta Composite slipped 28.66 points or 0.45% to 6,309.04, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 5.35 points or 0.28% to 1,882.40, KOSPI Index contracted 4.29 points or 0.17% to 2,472.04, Shanghai Composite declined 3.26 points or 0.11% to 3,068.28, Hang Seng decreased 108.11 points or 0.36% to 30,310.22, and Taiwan Weighted down by 85.74 points or 0.8% to 10,693.64.
On the flip side, Straits Times up by 12.62 points or 0.35% to 3,586.00.
