Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in early deals on Thursday, tracking weak cues from Wall Street overnight. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei was trading with a cut of over one and a half percent as stronger yen weighed on export-oriented stocks. However, Chinese Shanghai gained by over quarter a percent as data showed that inflation rate slowed in China, the world’s second-largest economy. Consumer prices in China were up 2.5 percent in December, below forecasts for 2.7 percent and slowing from 3.0 percent in November.
Hang Seng dipped 26.72 points or 0.12% to 22,969.87, Nikkei 225 dropped 247.71 points or 1.54% to 15,873.74, Straits Times slipped 2.56 points or 0.08% to 3,148.09, Seoul Composite shed 2.51 points or 0.13% to 1,956.45 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 26.78 points or 0.31% to 8,529.23.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite rose 7.26 points or 0.36% to 2,051.60, Jakarta Composite gained 8.70 points or 0.21% to 4,209.29 and KLSE Composite was up by 1.12 points or 0.06% to 1,832.42.