The Taiwan stock market on Friday halted the three-day slide in which it had given away almost 300 points or 3.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange finished just above the 7,700-point plateau, although now analysts are forecasting renewed consolidation at the opening of trade on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly light on leads, since the major European and U.S. markets were closed for Good Friday. However, analysts are looking for selling pressure on Monday after U.S. employment data failed to meet expectations.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks.
For the day, the index collected 66.44 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 7,706.26 after trading between 7,638.05 and 7,713.24.
Among the gainers, KGI Securities surged by the 7 percent daily limit, while China Development Financial spiked 5.27 percent and TPK Holdings jumped 5.0 percent.
There is no lead from Wall Street or Europe, although the Asian markets are still looking at some negative momentum after the Labor Department reported on Friday that U.S. employment saw continued growth in March, although the pace of job growth came in well below estimates.
Non-farm payroll employment increased by 120,000 jobs in March following an upwardly revised increase of 240,000 jobs in February. Economists had expected the addition of about 201,000 jobs compared to the increase of 227,000 jobs that had been reported for the previous month.
The continued job growth was partly due to notable increases in employment in the leisure and hospitality and manufacturing sectors, which added 39,000 jobs and 37,000 jobs, respectively.
Despite the weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 8.2 percent in March from 8.3 percent in February. With the unexpected drop, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since coming in at 7.8 percent in January of 2009.
Also, the Bank of England kept the size of its bond purchases unchanged, as concerns about a technical recession ease and inflation remains sticky due to elevated oil prices. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee decided to leave the quantitative easing unchanged at GBP 325 billion. Also, the committee retained the benchmark interest rate at its record low level of 0.50 percent.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.