Raft of positive data from China lifts Asian markets
Markets in Asia have been reacting to a raft of positive data from China, as both retail and industrial figures beat economists' expectations.
In August, industrial production was up 6.3 per cent year-on-year, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. This was up from six per cent growth in July – and it just beat economists' forecasts of 6.2 per cent growth.
Retail sales came in at 10.6 per cent year-on-year growth, up from 10.2 per cent growth. Forecasts had predicted the growth rate to stay flat.
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Chinese real estate sales fell again in August – but property investment grew for the first time in four months.
Real estate investment was up 0.1 per cent from the last reading, bringing the annualised growth between January and August to 5.4 per cent. This was the first increase in property investment since April last year.
Growth in urban fixed asset investment held steady at 8.1 per cent year-on-year in August.
On the back of the data, China's Shanghai Composite in China edged down 0.28 per cent and the Shenzhen Composite was up 0.49 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei 225 edged up 0.49 per cent at time of writing and the Topix was up 0.13 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.78 per cent and the Kospi in South Korea was up 0.6 per cent. Australia's ASX 200 was down 0.21 per cent.