Asian markets exhibit mixed trade in early deals on Monday

Asian equity benchmarks are exhibiting mixed trend in early deals on Monday with investors mostly treading cautiously amid lingering concerns about the situation in Ukraine. A lack of positive triggers from the region is also contributing to the somewhat sluggish movements in most of the markets. The Asian stocks swung between gains and losses as utilities led the advance and consumer discretionary shares declined. The Japanese market dropped with a slightly stronger yen and concerns about the ongoing unrest in Ukraine hurting sentiment. The country saw a current account surplus of 116.4 billion yen in March that was shy of forecasts for a surplus of 347.7 billion yen following the 612.7 billion yen surplus in February. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore and Taiwan are notably lower. Malaysia is down marginally. South Korea and Indonesia are up with modest gains. Shanghai is up sharply, while Hong Kong is trading marginally higher. Shanghai Composite increased by 38.29 points or 1.90% to 2,049.43, Hang Seng surged by 375.12 points or 1.72% to 22,238.11, Jakarta Composite added 18.02 points or 0.37% to 4,916.15 and Seoul Composite was up by 7.99 points or 0.41% to 1,964.54. On the flip side, KLSE Composite declined 0.15 points or 0.01% to 1,866.57, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 18.33 points or 0.13% to 14,181.26, Straits Times slipped by 18.62 points or 0.57% to 3,233.51 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 52.41 points or 0.59% to 8,837.28.