Asian equity benchmarks are trading up in the early deals on Monday following a strong lead from Wall Street on better-than-expected US jobs data that eased fears of an economic slowdown in the world's largest economy. Election results in Japan and Australia also lifted investor sentiment. The US Labor Department's jobs report said non-farm payroll employment surged up by 287,000 jobs in June versus economist estimates for an increase of about 180,000 jobs. However, the report also said the uptick in jobs in May was downwardly revised to just 11,000 from the 38,000 originally reported. The unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent in June from 4.7 percent in May, while average hourly employee earnings rose by $0.02 to $25.61. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average soared after US stocks rose and the country's ruling coalition won a landslide victory in upper house elections, boosting confidence in the market.
Nikkei 225 gained 595.47 points or 3.94% to 15,702.45, Hang Seng rose 338.20 points or 1.64% to 20,902.37, Shanghai Composite increased 27.17 points or 0.91% to 3,015.27, Jakarta Composite surged 81.85 points or 1.65% to 5,053.43, KOSPI Index jumped 23.87 points or 1.22% to 1,986.97, Taiwan Weighted spurt 135.89 points or 1.57% to 8,776.80, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 8.33 points or 0.51% to 1,652.87, and Straits Times was up by 24.57 points or 0.86% to 2,871.61.