Asian markets mostly trade down as World Bank lowered global growth forecast

All the Asian equity indices barring Straits Times were trading lower in the early deals on Thursday, tracking cues from Wall Street where stocks ended weak overnight after the World Bank lowered its global growth forecast to 2.8 percent from an earlier estimate for a 3.5 percent expansion. Some none too encouraging economic reports from the region also added to the subdued sentiments. The Japanese market dropped as the yen maintained gains and technical indicators signaled to some investors that the market is overbought. In economic news, core machine orders in Japan contracted a seasonally adjusted 9.1 percent on month in April that beat forecasts for a decline of 10.8 percent following the 19.1 percent surge in March. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia are trading weak, while Singapore is up marginally.

Nikkei 225 declined 89.40 points or 0.59% to 14,980.08, Hang Seng decreased by 31.08 points or 0.13% to 23,226.21, KOSPI Index dipped 5.65 points or 0.28% to 2,009.02, Jakarta Composite slipped by 24.78 points or 0.50% to 4,947.17, Shanghai Composite tumbled 4.68 points or 0.23% to 2,050.26 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 2.77 points or 0.15% to 1,875.61.

On the flip side, Straits Times was up by 1.90 points or 0.06% to 3,291.94.