Most Asian markets gain amid
Oil prices witnessed their biggest one-day loss in six weeks Reuters

Most Asian stock market indices were trading in the red with the Shanghai Composite down 0.09% at 3,168.49 as of 5:39am GMT, following overnight decline on both Wall Street and a fall in oil prices. China's less-than-expected consumer inflation numbers also impacted the markets.

On Monday (9 January), most indices in the US slipped ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump's news conference scheduled for Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial average failed to touch its March highs of 20,000 and instead slipped 0.38% to close at 19,887.38. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index fell 0.35% to end at 2,268.90.

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Oil prices too plunged, down as much as 4% overnight, to touch a three-week low amid doubts over Opec nations such as Saudi Arabia and non-Opec nations like Russia sticking to their recent agreement to cut output. Investors also doubted if the cuts were enough to stabilise crude prices as other producers such as the US increase supplies.

"It's unusual to have these agreements last for very long because inevitably someone cheats... It's certainly conceivable that the agreement falls apart and you get more production than anticipated in addition to already thinking that it (the oil price) should be lower because of dollar strength," Daniel Morris, senior investment strategist at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Meanwhile, China's producer price index number for December 2016 rose 5.5% on-year to hit a five-year high. Consumer inflation was up 2.1% on-year, disappointing investors as the figure was lower than the 2.3% expected by a Reuters poll.

Indices in the region were trading as follows at 5.56am GMT:

CountryIndexPriceUp/Down%Change
Hong KongHang Seng Index22,679.80Up0.54%
JapanNikkei 22519,331.87Down0.63%
South KoreaKOSPI2,043.53Down0.26%
IndiaBSE26,847.75Up0.45%
AustraliaS&P/ASX 2005,760.70Down0.80%

On 9 January, the FTSE 100 Index closed 0.38% higher at 7,237.77.

Among commodities, oil prices bounced back after suffering their biggest one-day loss in six weeks on Monday. As of 12.48am EST, WTI crude oil was trading 0.13% higher at $52.03 (£42.82) a barrel, while Brent crude was trading 0.16% higher at $55.03 a barrel.