Asia is set for a mixed trading day on Wednesday, even after U.S. equities closed higher overnight.
Nikkei futures in Chicago traded at 20,680 and Osaka futures were at 20,670. The Japanese benchmark index finished at 20,614.07 in the previous session.
Australian stocks opened lower, with the benchmark ASX 200 down 0.45 percent at 5,675.70. The energy subindex was down 0.73 percent and the heavily-weighted financial sector fell 0.49 percent in early trade.
Major Australian banking stocks were lower, with ANZ shares tumbling 0.94 percent, Westpac off 0.62 percent and the National Australia Bank lower by 0.7 percent.
“The Australian share market faces a test today,” Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said in a morning note. “After underperforming major markets in September, weakness returned in trading yesterday.”
McCarthy added that the “potential for a negative day looms if the top down sellers return.”
Markets in China and South Korea remain closed for public holidays.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy decision is due on Wednesday. Many analysts expect the central bank to stay on hold, keeping the repo rate at 6 percent.
“There is pressure on the committee to ease rates, given that the repo rate is at 6 percent versus below-4 percent CPI inflation,” said Radhika Rao, an economist at Singapore-based DBS Bank, in a note. “The RBI is, however, unlikely to react this week as besides a gradual rise in inflation, significant changes in the macro backdrop also need to be assessed further.”
The Indian rupee will be in focus. The currency last fetched 65.48 per dollar.
Elsewhere in the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, remained at levels similar to the previous session. At 7:30 a.m. HK/SIN, the index stood at 93.603.
Among other currency majors, the Japanese yen traded at 112.84 per dollar and the Australian dollar fetched $0.7835.
