Asian markets mostly trade higher in early deals on Wednesday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading higher in the early deals on Wednesday. However, the Japanese stock market declined with investors indulging in some profit taking after the previous session's upmove that saw the benchmark index rising nearly 2 percent. In the economy news, an index measuring domestic corporate goods prices in Japan was up 2.8 percent on month at 105.7 in April that was in line with expectations following the flat reading in March. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia are trading notably higher. Taiwan is up marginally, while Shanghai is modestly lower. Hang Seng increased 203.02 points or 0.91% to 22,555.40, Jakarta Composite added 43.18 points or 0.88% to 4,964.58, KLSE Composite gained 8.04 points or 0.43% to 1,874.12, Straits Times soared 33.21 points or 1.03% to 3,255.64, Seoul Composite jumped by 19.52 points or 0.98% to 2,002.45 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 34.99 points or 0.40% to 8,852.93. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 3.37 points or 0.16% to 2,047.36 and Nikkei 225 was down by 30.35 points or 0.21% to 14,395.09.