China shares sold lower despite the positive data

In Monday trade, shares in Asia-Pacific remained mixed as investors reacted to the latest Chinese economic data from October.

Mainland Chinese stocks remained lower, with the Shanghai composite sliding around 0.4% while the Shenzhen component fell 0.606%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index remained slightly lower.

Surprisingly, the losses grew despite Chinese economic data turning out to be better than expected.

On Monday, the released data showed retail sales in China rose 4.8% year-on-year in the previous month. It seemed higher than the Reuters poll prediction of a 3.6 gain. Industrial production for October also increased 3.6% compared to the same period last year. It also beat analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll predicting a 3.1% increase.

Kospi (South Korea) increased 1.05%, leading gains among the Asia-Pacific region’s major markets. Chipmaker SK Hynix shares rose more than 4.2%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 0.48% as shares of SoftBank Group surged more than 2.5%. The Topix index increased 0.33%.

According to Reuters, preceding estimates released on Monday showed the gross domestic product of Japan descending an annualized 3.5% in the previous quarter. According to the data, results seemed way worse than the median market forecast for a 0.9% reduction.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.35%.

MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific shares traded 0.34% higher outside Japan.

Currencies and oil

Tracking the greenback against a basket of its peers, the U.S. dollar index was 95.03, after a recent increase below 94.6.

The Japanese yen traded at 113.87 per dollar after the last week’s weakening from below 114 levels against the greenback. The Australian dollar was at $0.735, having moved from above $0.75 last week.

In the afternoon of Asia trading hours, oil prices decreased with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.87% to $81.47 per barrel. U.S. crude futures dropped 0.78% to $80.16 per barrel.

The Shanghai Composite Index was flat at 3,538. At the same time, on Monday, the Shenzhen Component Index shed 0.4% towards 14,660 after the data of industrial production and retail sales in China balanced investor sentiment. Surprisingly, it overpassed the expectations as markets previously speculated that the economic data could come in a weaker condition. China’s industrial output rose compared with a lower growth forecast, while retail sales increased as well in October versus a lower estimated increase. Early market failures are Contemporary Amper (-4%), Tianqi Lithium (-7%), and Zhejiang Yongtai (-11%). In the meantime, early market leaders were Hangzhou Silan (4%), Navinfo Co (11%), and East Group (4%).