Asian markets are trading mostly in red terrain in early deals on Monday, as trade tensions between the US and China remains in focus. U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he may impose tariffs on another $267 billion worth of Chinese goods. His administration is already considering imposing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods following the expiration of a public comment period at midnight on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei opened lower but quickly pared losses after revised second-quarter gross domestic product data showed the world’s third-biggest economy grew at its fastest pace since 2016. The Cabinet Office said that Japan's gross domestic product climbed 3.0 percent on year in the second quarter of 2018. That beat forecasts for 2.6 percent and was up from the previous reading of 1.9 percent. The Bank of Japan said that overall bank lending in Japan was up 2.2 percent on year in August, coming in at 526.912 trillion yen. That follows the 2.0 percent increase in July. Excluding trusts, lending was also up 2.2 percent on year to 458.295 trillion yen - up from 2.0 percent in the previous month. Among the other Asian markets, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Shanghai are lower. Bucking the trend, Malaysia is in positive territory.
Taiwan Weighted declined 109.67 points or 1.02% to 10,737.32, Straits Times decreased 15.49 points or 0.5% to 3,118.90, Jakarta Composite shed 28.21 points or 0.48% to 5,823.26, Hang Seng dropped 239.61 points or 0.9% to 26,733.86 and Shanghai Composite was down by 17.00 points or 0.63% to 2,685.30.
On the flip side, Nikkei 225 increased 47.60 points or 0.21% to 22,354.66 and KOSPI up by 6.04 points or 0.26% to 2,287.62.
