The Asian markets, barring the Japanese Nikkei have made a soft start with many of the indices trading lower by about a percent on US concern, as minutes of Federal Reserve October monetary meeting signaled the central bank was on track to slow down its bond-buying program that has boosted the equity markets in the region. The Fed minutes stated that many officials at the central bank think it could decide to slow the pace of purchases at one of its next few meetings. While, the Japanese stocks rose before the conclusion of a central bank meeting today, as the yen dropped. Chinese market was down ahead of the release of a private index on manufacturing due today.
Shanghai Composite lost 22.04 points or 1.00% to 2,184.58, Hang Seng declined by 166.44 points or 0.70% to 23,534.42, Jakarta Composite was down by 39.35 points or 0.90% to 4,311.43, KLSE Composite declined by 7.70 points or 0.43% to 1,790.99, Straits Times was down by 14.68 points or 0.46% to 3,169.55, Seoul Composite lost 23.27 points or 1.15% to 1,993.97 and Taiwan Weighted was lower by 87.45 points or 1.07% to 8,117.01.
On the other hand Nikkei 225 surged by 246.38 points or 1.63% to 15,322.46.
