Asian equity benchmarks traded mixed in early deals on Thursday, retreating from a two week high level as the participants side-lined ahead to the release of Friday’s US inflation data for more cues on Centre’s stimulus measures. Continued surge in new covid cases, lockdowns and other restrictive measures in the region also dulled the market sentiments. Firm trend in Wall street overnight trimmed the losses in the session. Technological shares edged gains, while miners and banking sector shares traded mostly lower in the session. Japan’s Nikkei snapped its five day winning streak, amid profit booking and as traders are cautious with the higher daily coronavirus infection rates caused by highly contagious variants of the virus. Among the Asian markets, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea are in negative trend. On the flip side, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Malaysia are advancing.
Nikkei 225 down by 116.20 points or 0.41% to 28,525.99, Hang Seng dropped by 71.60 points or 0.25% to 29,094.41, Taiwan Weighted dipped by 74.55 points or 0.45% to 16,569.14, and KOSPI lower 8.44 points or 0.27% to 3,159.99.
Bucking the trend, Straits Times rose 12.54 points or 0.40% to 3,158.63, Jakarta Composite increased by 71.76 points or 1.23% to 5,887.60, Shanghai Composite lifted by 6.45 points or 0.18% to 3,599.81, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI higher by 0.38 points 0.02% to 1,578.20.