Asian markets mostly trade lower in early deals on Tuesday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Tuesday, with investors looking for direction following a holiday in the US on Monday. Though some of the markets in the region saw modest gains early on in the session thanks to a positive lead from Europe, buying interest was somewhat subdued. Meanwhile, the Japanese stock market traded higher with investors indulging in some buying, tracking overnight gains in European markets. In the economy news, corporate service prices in Japan were up 3.4 percent on year in April, following the 0.7 percent increase in March. Among the individual components of the survey, prices were higher for communication, leasing, transportation, engineering and motor vehicle repair. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Indonesia and Singapore are down marginally, while South Korea is notably lower. Malaysia and Taiwan are up slightly. Shanghai Composite slipped 4.44 points or 0.22% to 2,037.04, Hang Seng dropped by 45.65 points or 0.20% to 22,917.53, Jakarta Composite tumbled 9.13 points or 0.18% to 4,963.92, Straits Times shed by 6.78 points or 0.21% to 3,276.10 and Seoul Composite was down by 15.73 points or 0.78% to 1,994.62. On the flip side, KLSE Composite gained 3.05 points or 0.16% to 1,865.85, Nikkei 225 spurted by 108.88 points or 0.75% to 14,711.40 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 17.32 points or 0.19% to 9,053.44.