Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, following the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street. Though, Japan’s Nikkei share average rose, buoyed by gains in US shares overnight and a sharp jump in index heavyweight Tokyo Electron after it forecast strong profits for this fiscal year. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Shanghai, and Singapore are in negative territory. Bucking the trend, South Korea and Malaysia are trading higher.
Hang Seng declined 213.24 points or 0.7% to 30,114.91, Jakarta Composite slipped 100.76 points or 1.66% to 5,979.09, Taiwan Weighted decreased 36.06 points or 0.34% to 10,523.91, Shanghai Composite dropped 28.76 points or 0.92% to 3,089.21, and Straits Times down by 1.78 points or 0.05% to 3,566.23.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 123.6 points or 0.56% to 22,338.92, KOSPI Index gained 32.89 points or 1.34% to 2,481.70, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 5.16 points or 0.28% to 1,857.09.
