The Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, as traders digested a slew of weak Chinese data released over the weekend and tread cautiously ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting this week. China’s stocks fell after data suggesting economic growth was running below the 2015 target level of about 7 percent heightened concerns about the health of the economy. The economic concerns offset the impact of plans announced at the weekend to reform the bloated state-owned enterprise sector and produce decisive results by 2020. Underscoring the fragility of China’s financial markets even after some respite last week, currency traders suspected the central bank intervened to prop up the yuan in onshore markets, which wobbled following a report that net capital outflows in the first quarter of the year were more than $100 billion. China has unveiled details of how it would restructure its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including partial privatization, as data pointed to a cooling in the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese Retail Sales rose to an annual rate of 10.8%, from 10.5% in the preceding month while Chinese Industrial Production rose to 6.1%, from 6.0% in the preceding month. Chinese Fixed Asset Investment fell to a seasonally adjusted 10.9%, from 11.2% in the preceding month. Japan’s industrial production fell to a seasonally adjusted -0.8%, from -0.6% in the preceding month. Japanese tertiary industry activity index rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.2%, from 0.3% in the preceding month.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,114.80 | -85.44 | -2.67 |
Hang Seng | 21,561.90 | 57.53 | 0.27 |
Jakarta Composite | 4,390.38 | 29.91 | 0.69 |
KLSE Composite | 1,639.63 | 36.03 | 2.25 |
Nikkei 225 | 17,965.70 | -298.52 | -1.63 |
Straits Times | 2,871.47 | -16.56 | -0.57 |
KOSPI Composite | 1,931.46 | -9.91 | -0.51 |
Taiwan Weighted | 8,307.29 | 1.47 | 0.02 |