Regional Asian Equities Mostly Higher, South Korea Outperforms

Regional Asia Equities are mostly higher today, after a slow start this morning. The BBG Asia index 0.29% higher.

• Japan equities are mixed today, after a slow start this morning the weaker yen has helped equities move off their lows of the day. There has been little in the way of data today outside of Machinery orders coming in, inline with expected at 2.7% MoM, while a slight beat on YoY orders coming in at -0.7% vs -1.3%. The Nikkei 225 trades -.10%, while the Topix is 0.40% higher
• Taiwan is trading slightly higher today, led by Finance and Insurance names. While Spirox, who provide solutions and products to semiconductor sector is trading up 10% on very little news. Taiex is up 0.23%.
• South Korean equities are the top performers in the region today, hitting new highs not seen since May 2022. Foreign inflows have rebounded from a lull last week hitting $323m today, on expectations that the government will continue to support the market and close the "Korea Discount", Kospi is up 1.08%.
• Australian Equities are slightly higher today, up 0.26% led by the mining and industrials sectors. A2 Milk is up by 12.48% after an earnings beat.
• Thailand released GDP earlier coming in at 1.7% vs 2.6% estimated, equities trading 0.20% higher
• Elsewhere in SEA, New Zealand equities are the worst performers of the region down 0.60%, Philippines equities down ~0.20%, while Malaysia equities trade close to flat for the day