Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading in green on Thursday after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell fanned expectations of an interest rate cut. Japan's Nikkei also traded higher as investors eyed on May results for its tertiary industry index today. Among the other Asian markets, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Shanghai are in positive lead. Bucking the trend, Indonesia and Malaysia are in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 rise by 105.30 points or 0.49% to 21,638.78, Straits Times up 22.21 points or 0.66% to 3,362.63, Hang Seng jumps 335.05 points or 1.19% to 28,539.74, Taiwan Weighted increases 53.85 points or 0.50% to 10,852.33, KOSPI Index enlarged 25.87 points or 1.26% to 2,084.65, and Shanghai hiked 9.55 points 0.33% to 2,924.85.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declines by 4.67 points or 0.07% to 6,406.01 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreases 3.90 points or 0.23% to 1,678.97.
