Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Thursday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the morning deals on Thursday, despite a positive lead from Wall Street. The Japanese stock market opened higher buoyed by solid gains on Wall Street overnight on the back of some strong earnings reports. However, the slightly stronger yen capped the gains to some extent. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea is notably higher. Taiwan and Shanghai are trading notably lower, while Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are trading marginally weak.

Hang Seng dropped 55.33 points or 0.24% to 23,467.95, Straits Times slipped by 0.62 points or 0.02% to 3,303.81, Jakarta Composite declined 7.05 points or 0.14% to 5,106.88, Shanghai Composite tumbled by 16.69 points or 0.81% to 2,050.59, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 0.90 points or 0.05% to 1,885.81 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 96.05 points or 1.01% to 9,388.68.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 soared 15.10 points or 0.10% to 15,394.40 and KOSPI Index was up by 9.38 points or 0.47% to 2,022.86.