Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trend in early deals on Thursday despite the overnight gains on Wall Street as the increase in U.S. bond yields weighed on investors’ sentiments. However, the Japanese stock market edged higher on a weaker yen. Investors shrugged off weak Japanese core machinery orders data for March. The Cabinet Office said that the total value of core machine orders in Japan dropped 3.9 percent on month in March, coming in at 856.6 billion yen. That missed expectations for a decline of 3.0 percent following the 2.1 percent increase in February. Among the other Asian markets, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are trading higher. On the other side, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and South Korea are lower.
Taiwan Weighted decreased 20.88 points or 0.19% to 10,876.69, Hang Seng slipped 12.24 points or 0.04% to 31,097.96, Shanghai Composite shed 7.34 points or 0.23% to 3,162.23 and KOSPI Index down by 1.1 points or 0.04% to 2,458.72.
On the flip side, Straits Times jumped 2.82 points or 0.08% to 3,535.87, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 4.4 points or 0.24% to 1,862.66, Jakarta Composite rose 39 points or 0.67% to 5,880.47 and Nikkei 225 up by 153.41 points or 0.68% to 22,870.64.
