Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Wednesday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Wednesday, tracking the weak cues from Wall Street and the decline in crude oil prices denting investor sentiment. Meanwhile, soft inflation data from China added to concerns about the world's second-largest economy. China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.6 percent in September from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) said, falling short of expectations of 1.8 percent and down from August's 2.0 percent. The bureau also said that producer prices fell 5.9 percent on year - in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous month. Meanwhile, the Japanese market fell, weighed down by uncertainty over the prospects for China's slowing economy which had also sent Wall Street lower. In addition, the stronger yen weighed on exporters' stocks. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are down with modest losses.  Bucking the trend, Shanghai and Singapore are marginally higher. The markets in Malaysia and Indonesia are closed on Wednesday for the Islamic New Year.

Nikkei 225 declined 316.16 points or 1.73% to 17,918.58, Hang Seng decreased 129.62 points or 0.57% to 22,470.84, KOSPI Index dropped 6.98 points or 0.35% to 2,012.07, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 32.32 points or 0.38% to 8,535.60.

On the flip side, Straits Times surged 5.88 points or 0.20% to 2,990.76, and Shanghai Composite was up by 1.97 points or 0.06% to 3,295.20.