Most of the Asian equity benchmarks traded lower in early deals on Thursday, weighed down by the continued surge in covid-19 new infections and ambiguity in the global economic rebound. Additionally, US Federal Reserve’s indication that it might raise interest rates at a much faster pace than assumed side lined some investments amid assumptions that early US rate hikes might suck funds out of riskier assets. Fed fund futures shifted to imply a first hike by the end of 2022. Japan’s Nikkei tumbled with the benchmark below the 29,000 level , tracking weak cues from Wall street overnight. However, losses remained trimmed as government is to decide later in the day to end the COVID-19 state of emergency in most prefectures on Sunday on a steady decline in COVID-19 infections. Among the Asian markets, Japan, , Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia are in negative trend. Bucking the trend, Singapore, Hong Kong and China are trading higher.
Nikkei 225 down by 324.73 points or 1.11% to 28,966.28, Jakarta Composite narrowed by 13.17 points or 0.22% to 6,065.40, KOSPI diminished 13.01 points or 0.40% to 3,265.67, Taiwan Weighted lower by 29.30 points or 0.17 to 17,278.56 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI curtailed by 6.66 points 0.42% to 1,571.66
On the flip side, Straits Times up 8.17 points or 0.26% to 3,147.74, Hang Seng rose by 80.13 points or 0.28% to 28,516.97, and Shanghai Composite higher by 5.98 points or 0.17% to 3,524.31.
