All the Asian equity indices snapped the day’s trade in the negative terrain on Monday as steep slowdown in US jobs growth raised concerns about the strength of the world's largest economy, prompting investors to curb risk exposure ahead of more US data and earnings as well as figures from China this week. Friday’s data showed that US payrolls grew by 120,000 in March, far below the expected gain of 203,000 jobs for the smallest rise since October.
Meanwhile, China Shanghai Composite ended down 0.9 percent, led by property shares after inflation came in higher than expected, prompting speculation that Beijing may delay further easing of monetary policy. Moreover, Japanese and Singapore’s benchmarks ended with a cut of about 1.50 percent and 0.90 percent respectively after weaker-than-expected US jobs data hit market sentiment.
Markets in Hong Kong remained closed on Monday on account Easter holiday.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 2,285.78 | -20.78 | -0.90 |
Jakarta Composite | 4,154.07 | -12.31 | -0.30 |
KLSE Composite | 1,591.28 | -7.59 | -0.47 |
Nikkei 225 | 9,546.26 | -142.19 | -1.47 |
Straits Times | 2,960.10 | -26.10 | -0.87 |
Seoul Composite | 1,997.08 | -31.95 | -1.57 |
Taiwan Weighted | 7,600.87 | -105.39 | -1.37 |
Hang Seng | -- | -- | -- |