By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian stock markets rose Monday after
data showed China's economy grew in line with expectations in the
second quarter, belying some fears of a sharper slowdown.
The Shanghai Composite climbed 1% and the Shenzhen Composite
soared 2.3% to front the region's stock advances, after data from
the National Bureau of Statistics put the quarterly gross domestic
product growth at 7.5%.
Other economic data released Monday also helped ease some
worries, with June retail sales, in particular, rising a
better-than-expected 13.3%.
The GDP growth figure -- although weaker than the 7.7% expansion
recorded in the first quarter -- matched expectations in separate
surveys of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters.
The data followed a period of intense debate over the growth
trajectory, as analysts worried that the Chinese economy may face
more headwinds as Beijing refrained from providing additional
fiscal or monetary stimulus.
"After all the conjecture over the weekend, the latest batch of
Chinese economic data was largely in line with economist
forecasts," said CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian.
"The good news is that retail sales lifted for the fifth
consecutive month, and while not at heady 15%-plus growth rates
seen a year ago, it still provides a degree of encouragement,"
Sebastian said.
The gains in Shanghai also came after China's Xinhua news
service -- which had late last week cited Finance Minister Lou
Jiwei as tipping 7% growth for 2013 -- corrected its story over the
weekend. The corrected report said the minister had actually
indicated the economy would expand 7.5% this year, in line with the
government's official target.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.1% each, while South Korea's Kospi
added 0.3%, with all three of them erasing earlier losses in the
wake of the Chinese data.
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Several Chinese banks rallied to lead the rebound in Shanghai.
China Citic Bank Corp. (CHCJY) climbed 4.3%, while Bank of
Communications Co. (BCMXY), or BoCom, rose 1.8%.
The banking-led advance also followed data released by the
People's Bank of China after the market close Friday, showing a
slowdown in June in total social financing -- the broadest measure
of credit in China -- from the level seen in May.
Meanwhile, China's statistics bureau said Monday that the
non-performing loan ratio at the country's commercial banks sat at
1%, up slightly from 0.9% in the first half of 2012 but still
relatively low.
In Hong Kong, China Resources Enterprise Ltd. , (0291.HK), which
has interests from food-and-beverages to retail, climbed 3.3%,
while Internet major Tencent Holdings Ltd. (TCEHY) climbed 3.7%,
while banks ended on a mixed note.
Meanwhile, the stock performance in Asia followed a third
straight week of gains for U.S. equities, after the Dow Jones
Industrial Average (DJI) and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index
ended at record highs Friday.
Energy producers and banks underpinned the gains in Sydney after
the Chinese economic data, with Linc Energy Ltd. soaring 26% after
updating investors that it has completed drilling work on a well
with a daily production rate of 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent at
the Cedar Point Field in Texas.
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