Asian markets mostly trade lower in early deals on Wednesday

All the Asian equity benchmarks barring Shanghai Composite are trading lower in the early deals on Wednesday, tracking cues from Wall Street where the major averages ended notably lower overnight. The Japanese stocks are trading lower as the yen gained after the central bank refrained from boosting stimulus. On the economic front, Japan saw a merchandise trade deficit of 808.8 billion yen in April that missed forecasts for a shortfall of 646 billion yen following the 1,446 billion yen deficit in March. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia are trading weak, while Shanghai is trading higher. Hang Seng slipped by 20.47 points or 0.09% to 22,814.21, Jakarta Composite declined 12.24 points or 0.25% to 4,883.72, KLSE Composite decreased by 4.06 points or 0.22% to 1,877.10, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 100.16 points or 0.71% to 13,975.09, Straits Times crumbled 6.15 points or 0.19% to 3,259.32, Seoul Composite dipped by 5.05 points or 0.25% to 2,006.21 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 8.53 points or 0.10% to 8,879.26. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 2.84 points or 0.14% to 2,010.96.