Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Wednesday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday amid volatility in the crude oil prices after Russia and Saudi Arabia dampened prospects of a supply cut by deciding to freeze the output if other big exporters joined them. Meanwhile, the Japanese market slipped into negative territory amid choppy trades as investors digested weaker than expected core machinery orders data. Among the other Asian market, Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are in negative territory. However, Indonesia, and Malaysia are marginally higher.

Nikkei 225 declined 330.84 points or 2.06% to 15,723.59, Hang Seng dropped 94.80 points or 0.50% to 19,027.28, Taiwan Weighted dipped 3.07 points or 0.04% to 8,209.00, KOSPI Index slipped 5.13 points or 0.27% to 1,883.17, Straits Times decreased 23.65 points or 0.89% to 2,620.93, and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.89 points or 0.24% to 2,829.68,

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite added 16.25 points or 0.34% to 4,761.26, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 2.04 points or 0.12% to 1,667.03.