Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading in green on Thursday, in line with the robust cues from US stocks overnight, as the weaker than expected financial data fed expectations for dovish monetary policies by major central banks, ahead to the impending meeting of the European Central Bank and next week's Fed meeting. Japan's Nikkei traded higher with the weaker yen and weaker crude oil rates. Meanwhile, concerns on the ongoing Japan-South Korea trade tensions and reports that North Korea fired two short-range missiles from its east coast into the sea pressured the investor sentiments. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia are in positive lead. Bucking the trend, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia are in negative territory.
Nikkei 225 up 80.96 points or 0.37% to 21,790.53, Straits Times jumpped 8.47 points or 0.25% to 3,376.91, Hang Seng surged 75.53 points or 0.26% to 28,599.57, Shanghai rose 8.62 points 0.29% to 2,931.90 ,, and Jakarta Composite gained by 16.39 points or 0.26% to 6,401.38.
On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted diminished 7.55 points or 0.07% to 10,928.21, KOSPI Index dropped 10.22 points or 0.49% to 2,072.08, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 0.09 points or 0.1% to 1,652.32.
