Most of the Asian equity indices are trading in the red terrain in early deals on Monday, tracking weak cues from Wall Street on Friday after Bernanke’s speech acknowledging that economy has a long way to go to return to normal. Back on regional turf, weak services sector economic data from China also dampened the sentiments. In addition, lower commodity prices are weighing on resource stocks. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei too declined around two percent as yen strengthened against the dollar. On the economic front, Japan will release figures for vehicle sales in the month of December. In November, sales were up 13.3 percent on year.
Shanghai Composite declined 40.13 points or 1.93% to 2,043.01, Hang Seng dropped 136.51 points or 0.60% to 22,680.77, Jakarta Composite shed 42.39 points or 1.00% to 4,215.27, Nikkei 225 tumbled 304.74 points or 1.87% to 15,986.57, Straits Times slipped 0.47 points or 0.02% to 3,131.00 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 28.44 points or 0.33% to 8,518.10.
On the flip side, KLSE Composite increased 0.38 points or 0.02% to 1,835.12 and Seoul Composite was up by 12.69 points or 0.65% to 1,958.83.