Asian markets trade lower in early deals on Monday

Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Monday, the first trading day of 2016, with the weak cues from Wall Street last Thursday and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East weighing on investor sentiment. Further, a private survey showed that China's factory activity contracted for a tenth straight month in December.  The latest survey from Caixin revealed that China's manufacturing sector continued to contract in December and at a faster rate, with a PMI score of 48.2. That was well shy of forecasts for 48.9 and down from 48.6 in November. It also moved further beneath the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The manufacturing sector in Japan remained in expansion territory in December, the latest survey from Nikkei showed on Monday with a PMI score of 52.6. That's up from the preliminary reading of 52.5, and it remained unchanged from the November reading. It also remained well above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

Nikkei 225 declined 465.67 points or 2.45% to 18,568.04, Hang Seng slipped 505.20 points or 2.31% to 21,409.20, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 19.57 points or 1.16% to 1,672.94, Straits Times contracted 38.98 points or 1.35% to 2,843.75, Shanghai Composite dipped 139.27 points or 3.94% to 3,399.91, Taiwan Weighted decreased 183.61 points or  2.20% to 8,154.45, KOSPI Index crumbled 29.66 points or 1.51% to 1,931.65, and Jakarta Composite was down by 3.30 points or 0.07% to 4,589.71.