Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Thursday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in morning deals on Thursday due to a weak close on Wall Street on account of a slightly negative reaction to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. On the regional front, the Japanese stock market rose as the yen fell to a seven-year low against the dollar after minutes of the Federal Reserve highlighted a divergence in global monetary policy. On the economic front, Japan had a merchandise trade deficit of 709.995 billion yen in October. That beat forecasts for a shortfall of 1,027.0 billion yen following the revised 960.6 billion yen deficit in September. Chinese Shanghai Composite dropped as industrial companies declined after a gauge of factory output slid to a six-month low, countering an advance in brokerages. Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea are notably lower, while Shanghai and Malaysia are down marginally. Taiwan is up sharply, while Hong Kong is modestly higher. KOSPI Index contracted 11.71 points or 0.60% to 1,955.16, Straits Times slipped by 11.15 points or 0.33% to 3,323.41, Jakarta Composite declined by 46.46 points or 0.91% to 5,081.47, Shanghai Composite decreased by 2.34 points or 0.10% to 2,448.65 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 2.65 points or 0.15% to 1,821.74. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 5.63 points or 0.03% to 17,294.38, Hang Seng spurted by 15.64 points or 0.07% to 23,388.95 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 101.65 points or 1.13% to 9,064.89.