Asian markets trade mostly lower on Wednesday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday following the weak cues from Wall Street and the fall in crude oil prices overnight. Weak corporate earnings results and economic data also weighed on investor sentiment. Though, Japan's Nikkei share average rose despite US stocks weakeness on dismal earnings in the corporate sector and falling oil prices. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are lower.

Hang Seng declined 162.42 points or 0.69% to 23,402.69, Shanghai Composite decreased 11.01 points or 0.35% to 3,120.93, Straits Times contracted 19.32 points or 0.68% to 2,834.73, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 3.16 points or 0.19% to 1,674.27, Jakarta Composite slipped 1.97 points or 0.04% to 5,395.85, KOSPI Index dropped 34.13 points or 1.68% to 2,003.04, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 25.20 points or 0.27% to 9,360.45.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 16.12 points or 0.09% to 17,381.37.