All the Asian equity benchmarks are trading in the red terrain in early deals on Friday, as traders grew cautious ahead of Sunday's referendum that could result in the loss of the southern territory of Crimea to Russia. On the regional front, Japanese stock market dropped with investors going on a selling spree due to the concerns about a slowing Chinese economy and on continuing worries about the situation in Ukraine. The yen's upmove against the greenback also added to the subdued sentiments. The yen is currently trading at 101.82 against the dollar. Chinese Shanghai Composite dropped on growing concern that weaker economic growth will curb earnings and spur corporate defaults. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan are all trading notably lower.
Shanghai Composite declined 10.75 points or 0.53% to 2,008.36, Hang Seng tumbled by 250.38 points or 1.15% to 21,505.70, Jakarta Composite dipped 40.90 points or 0.87% to 4,685.27, KLSE Composite contracted by 7.67 points or 0.42% to 1,811.19, Nikkei 225 shed by 403.05 points or 2.72% to 14,412.93, Straits Times decreased by 13.26 points or 0.43% to 3,068.13, KOSPI Composite slipped 10.96 points or 0.57% to 1,923.42 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 53.22 points or 0.61% to 8,694.57.