Most major Asian markets trade lower despite strong finish on Wall Street overnight

Major Asian markets fell on Wednesday morning despite a solid lead from Wall Street overnight, but Shanghai stocks bucked the trend.

The Shanghai composite was up 0.27 percent in early trade. That move followed price data out of the country: Consumer inflation in China rose 1.8 percent on-year in December, which was a touch lower than the market's expectations, while the producer price index topped predictions to climb 4.9 percent on-year, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Shenzhen composite traded down 0.11 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index traded near flat.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.25 percent despite broad gains across auto stocks and financial plays. Major automakers posted gains: Toyota rose 1.37 percent, Honda was up 2.57 percent and Mitsubishi Motors added 3.7 percent. Banking stocks were also up with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group adding 2.14 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ up 1.52 percent. Energy names also traded higher with Inpex shares gaining 2.61 percent.

But shares of SoftBank and Fast Retailing — two heavily-weighted names on the Nikkei stock average — were down 0.63 percent and 0.82 percent, respectively.

Over in Seoul, the benchmark Kospi index fell 0.23 percent. Shares of tech giant Samsung Electronics fell 2.3 percent Wednesday morning. The stock declined in the Tuesday session on the back of a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter profit guidance, prompting concerns about the business outlook for its semiconductor business. Rival memory chip maker SK Hynix tumbled 4.81 percent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4 percent in afternoon trade as most sectors declined. The gold subindex saw the steepest decline, down 1.87 percent, as miners struggled: Newcrest shares fell 2.67 percent, Evolution Mining was down 0.98 percent and Kingsgate tumbled 11.39 percent.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Jr Trader Alexander Kumanov

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