Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower on Thursday, in a cautious trade as the market participants awaited for cues ahead to closely-watched speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the challenges for monetary policy at the Economic Policy Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday. However, losses were trimmed with the modest gains overnight from Wall Street following better than expected earnings results from retail giants. Japan's Nikkei is in weak trend after the manufacturing activity of Japan declined for a fourth straight month in August. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Indonesia Shanghai, and Hong Kong are in negative territory. However, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia are trading higher.
Nikkei 225 down 12.71 points or 0.06% to 20,605.86, Hang Seng dipped 229.06 points or 0.87% to 26,040.98, KOSPI Index decreased 5.99 points or 0.30% to 1,958.66, Jakarta Composite diminished by 27.78 points or 0.44% to 6,225.19, and Shanghai contracted 5.29 points 0.18% to 2,875.04.
However, Straits Times rose 3.60 points or 0.12% to 3,126.17, Taiwan Weighted gained 5.70 points or 0.05% to 10,531.50, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up 3.31 points or 0.21% to 1,597.90.
