Yahoo Finance Asian Markets Fall; China’s Q2 GDP Growth Slides to 27-Year Low
Investing.com - Asian stocks fell in morning trade on Monday after China reported that the country’s GDP growth slowed to the weakest rate in 27 years.
The country’s GDP growth slowed to 6.2% in the April-June period from a year earlier, data from the statistics bureau showed on Monday. The figure was in line with expectations but lower than first quarter’s 6.4% year-on-year growth.
Meanwhile, data also showed factory output rose 6.3% in June, while retail sales rose 9.8% during the month. Investment gained 5.8% in the first half of the year. All three figures were better than previously expected.
Chinese stocks fell immediately after the release of GDP data but rebounded after the other data came in better-than-expected.
The Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component were both up 0.3% by 10:40 PM ET (02:40 GMT).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.2%.
Citing an unnamed senior U.S. official, Reuters reported that the U.S. may grant licenses for companies to restart sales to Chinese telecommunication equipment maker Huawei in as little as two weeks.
The news came after the resumption of Sino-U.S. trade talks following a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month in Japan.
The article also cited a Huawei spokesman who said "the Entity list restrictions should be removed altogether, rather than have temporary licenses applied for US vendors. Huawei has been found guilty of no relevant wrongdoing and represents no cybersecurity risk to any country so the restrictions are unmerited."
South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 0.1%.
Down under, Australia’s ASX 200 was down 0.4%. Wealth manager AMP slumped more than 10% after the company said it was “highly unlikely to proceed” with the sale of its life insurance and wealth protection business.
Markets in Japan are closed for a holiday.
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