Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher on Friday, after Sino-US trade negotiations have resumed. Mid-level talks were reported to have held in Washington on Thursday for the first time in almost two months as US and Chinese negotiators attempted to find common ground to pave the way for high-level talks scheduled for October. The market sentiments were also buoyed with the Central Banks' reassuring moves to tame global economic slowdown. Japan's Nikkei is in positive note after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged, as expected. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore are in positive territory. Bucking the trend, Indonesia and Malaysia are trading lower.
Nikkei 225 up 51.90 points or 0.24% to 22,096.35, Straits Times rose 1.43 points or 0.05% to 3,160.23, Hang Seng increased 8.16 points or 0.03% to 26,477.11, Taiwan Weighted enlarged 20.76 points or 0.19% to 10,915.46, KOSPI Index gained 6.72 points or 0.32% to 2,087.07, Shanghai added 5.20 points 0.17% to 3,004.48.
On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lower by 27.14 points or 0.43% to 6,217.33, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 4.78 points or 0.30% to 1,591.50.
