singapore asiapacific markets broadly struggled for gains on monday as investors kept an eye on the covid19 situation across the region while oil prices tumbled 3 australias benchmark asx 200 was unable to hold on to modest gains and finished flat at 753840 the australian dollar changed hands at 07354 against the greenback climbing from an earlier level around 07326 the aussie fell from levels above 07400 following a resurgent dollar friday on the back of strong nonfarm payrolls data australia reported 280 new covid cases over a 24hour period on sunday with most of them in the populous state of new south wales reports said that about 15 million people or 60 of the countrys population are under a strict lockdown in south korea the kospi index slipped 03 to 326042 the kosdaq finished near flat at 1060 meanwhile hong kongs hang seng index reduced earlier gains of near 1 to trade up 037 at 2627564 chinese mainland shares traded higher the shanghai composite rose 105 to 349463 while the shenzhen component added 077 to 1494144 elsewhere indian shares traded mostly flat in afternoon trade while shares in indonesia fell more than 1 the southeast asian country is currently grappling with a serious covid outbreak the monday session in asia follows after us jobs data on friday showed hiring rose at its fastest pace in nearly a year in july despite fears over the covid19 delta variant and tight labor supply issues the market reacted positively to the strong nonfarm payrolls data with a riskon move not always the case this year said analysts from anz research in a monday morning note the strength of data gives credence to the feds view that the labour market will maintain momentum through the summer even with the concerns around the delta variant the analysts wrote adding that while there is still a long way to go toward reaching full employment fridays figures offset some of the pessimism that had been building markets in japan and singapore are closed for public holidays chinas export growth unexpectedly slowed in july while imports also lost momentum exports rose 193 from a year ago compared with a 322 gain in june and versus a market forecast of a 208 gain reuters reported imports rose 281 from a year earlier less than a market forecast of a 33 increase extreme weather conditions and local covid outbreaks have not helped while supply disruption have also hampered export activity said rodrigo catril a senior foreignexchange strategist at the national australia bank in a morning note china reported data on monday that showed consumer inflation slowed slightly reuters reported the consumer price index in july rose 1 from a year ago versus a 11 gain in the prior month and below the government target of around 3 this year the news wire said lack of consumer inflationary pressures are not an obstacle for further policy easing a topic likely to garner more attention if further economic slowdown becomes evident in the incoming data flow catril said