Asian equities shrug dismal Chinese GDP data; surge higher

13 Apr 2012 Evaluate

Stock markets across the Asian region continue to trade on a positive note on the week’s last trading session with most major equity indices trading with around a percent gain. Reports from South Korea and Japan indicated that North Korea's rocket launch probably failed, raising investors' appetite for riskier asset like equities. Market participants in the region also remained influenced by overnight rally on Wall Street on optimism from the Euro zone as lower Italian bond yields eased some concerns about the region’s debt crisis. However, the claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week to their highest level since January but investors took cues from the hopes that China is going to report strong GDP growth.

However, the gains in the region got tempered a bit after official reports showed Chinese economy grew at its weakest pace in nearly three years in the first quarter, with the annual rate of expansion slowing more than expected to 8.1 percent from 8.9 percent in the previous quarter. The benchmarks in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea traded with gains of over a percent each while other frontline indices in the region traded with marginal gains.

Shanghai Composite added 0.22 points or 0.01% to 2,351.08, Hang Seng surged 312.35 points or 1.54% to 20,639.67, Jakarta Composite gained 3.40 points or 0.08% to 4,142.94, KLSE Composite rose 1.01 points or 0.06% to 1,602.28, Nikkei 225 soared 119.36 points or 1.25% to 9,644.15, Straits Times Index advanced 17.00 points or 0.57% to 2,995.14, Seoul Composite climbed 16.54 points or 0.83% to 2,003.17 and Taiwan Weighted jumped 97.23 points or 1.27% to 7,760.15.

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