Stocks in Asia Benefited from Chinese Economic Data

Several days ago, China’s National Bureau of Statistics released data about the economy. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) jumped 18.3% in the first three months of the year from a year ago. Stocks in Asia-Pacific benefited from this information, as investors reacted to the release of the Chinese economic data.

Mainland Chinese stocks strengthened their position on April 16. The Shanghai composite added 0.81% to end its trading day at 3,426.82 and the Shenzhen component added 0.296% to 13,72074.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.76% as of its final hour of trading.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.14% to close at 29,683.37. The Topix index advanced 0.1% to finish its trading day at 1,960.87.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.13% to 3,198.62.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose slightly to 7,063.50.

Over in India, the Nifty 50 added 0.61%, and the BSE Sensex gained 0.36% as of around 1:01 p.m. local time. The gains came despite the unfavorable Covid situation in the country. Unfortunately, the number of daily cases surpassed 200,000 on Thursday.

In the U.S, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 305.10 points to a record close of 34,035.99 on Thursday. The Dow crossed the 34,000 level for the first time. The S&P 500 gained 1.12% to 4,170.42 and it also reached a historic result. Also, the Nasdaq Composite added 1.31% to 14,038.16.

Stocks and the world’s second-largest economy

Stocks in Asia-Pacific saw gains on the day thanks to the Chinese economic data, and it makes sense to learn more about this topic. The surge in growth comes off a contraction in the first quarter of 2020 when the economy shrank by 6.8% due to the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in spite of this fact the economy returned to growth by the second quarter of last year.

The country’s GDP grew 10.3% in the first quarter when compared with the same period in 2019. The real sales also increased in March by 34.2% and this result even surpassed expectations.

China has to deal with certain challenges as well. This year more workers decided not to return to their home provinces during the Spring Festival. Nevertheless, the growth in industrial production failed to meet the expectations.

The data released on Friday pointed to steady but slower growth for the country’s economy. The current state of the economy is logical, as it moves beyond the initial outburst of growth following the pandemic.