Most of the Asian equity markets are trading higher on early deals on Monday, as lower growth in US payrolls eased concerns the Federal Reserve may not go for aggressive stimulus cuts. The payrolls rose just 74,000 in December, the smallest increase in nearly three years and far below the 196,000 forecast. Back on regional turf, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore’s Straits Times index were trading in negative territory. Meanwhile, the markets in South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia were trading higher, with the Indonesia market gaining more than 2 percent.
Jakarta Composite surged 105.84 points or 2.49% to 4,360.81, KLSE Composite rose 8.45 points or 0.46% to 1,835.06, Seoul Composite added 12.03 points or 0.62% to 1,950.57 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 45.34 points or 0.53% to 8,574.69.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite slipped 1.16 points or 0.06% to 2,012.14, Hang Seng dipped 14.22 points or 0.06% to 22,832.03 and Straits Times was down by 5.81 points or 0.18% to 3,138.06.
The Japanese market remained closed on account of ‘Coming of Age Day’ holiday.