Asian markets trade mostly lower in early deals on Monday

Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading down in the early deals on Monday after a disappointing US jobs report raised questions about the underlying strength of the world's biggest economy and worse-than-expected trade numbers out of China. The US Labor Department's report on Friday said non-farm payroll employment rose by 160,000 jobs in April, compared to economist estimates for a jump of about 200,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent in April, unchanged from the previous month. The rate had been expected to edge down to 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, crude oil prices soared on supply woes stemming from devastating wildfires in Canada. Stock markets in China were broadly lower after the Communist Party’s mouthpiece reported that the nation’s economy is headed for an ‘L-shaped’ recovery, stoking worries among investors that growth in the world’s second-largest economy will moderate further. Investors in the region also factored in data showing that Chinese exports fell 1.8% in dollar terms in April from a year earlier, reversing an increase of 11.5% in March. The drop was more than the no-growth forecast economists had expected. However, Japan's Nikkei share average rose snapping a six-session losing streak as the strong yen trend paused. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are also in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Singapore, and Hong Kong are higher.

Shanghai Composite contracted 65.09 points or 2.23% to 2,848.16, KOSPI Index slipped 13.07 points or 0.66% to 1,963.64, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 5.89 points or 0.36% to 1,643.47, Jakarta Composite declined 50.59 points or 1.05% to 4,772.00, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 6.17 points or 0.08% to 8,140.26.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 added 104.75 points or 0.65% to 16,211.47, Hang Seng surged 99.43 points or 0.49% to 20,209.30, and Straits Times was up by 13.88 points or 0.51% to 2,744.68.