Taiwan’s government bonds dropped for a third day and the local dollar strengthened after reports showed better-than-forecast growth in U.S. jobs, fueling optimism for a recovery in the global economy. The Taiex (TWSE) index of shares rallied 0.9 percent after overseas investors bought $1.1 billion more Taiwanese stocks than they sold in the past five days, taking net purchases for the year to $2.1 billion, according to exchange data. The 243,000 increase in U.S. payrolls was the biggest since April and exceeded all forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Unemployment in the world’s biggest economy dropped to 8.3 percent, the lowest since February 2009. Taiwan financial markets are open today to make up for an extended Lunar New Year holiday last week. “The U.S. job data was a huge boost to equities and encouraged risk-taking sentiments today,� said James Wang, a fixed-income trader at Yuanta Securities Co. in Taipei. “The recent rallies in Taiwan stocks have put pressure on government bonds to decline.� The yield on the government’s 1 percent notes due January 2017, the most-traded government securities, rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 0.943 percent as of 9:22 a.m. local time, prices from Gretai Securities Market show. The Taiwan dollar strengthened 0.3 percent to NT$29.454 against its U.S. counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency touched NT$29.415 earlier, the strongest level since Sept. 13. The overnight money-market rate, which measures interbank funding availability, slipped one basis point to 0.392 percent, according to a weighted average compiled by the Taiwan Interbank Money Center. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Wong in Taipei at awong268@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net

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