The Shanghai Stock Exchange is one of the most important trading venues in Asia.
(Photo: Reuters)
Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore The significant gains on Wall Street created a good mood on the Japanese stock market at the end of the week. The Nikkei index rose by up to 1.4 percent to a two-month high of 33,634 points. The broader Topix temporarily advanced 1.3 percent.
On the US stock exchange, hopes of an early end to the interest rate hike cycle drove prices on both sides of the Atlantic. Rising prices at semiconductor companies following the renewed IPO of the chip designer Arm also brightened the mood of investors. Investors also bought chip stocks on the Japanese stock market. Tokyo Electron gained around three percent. Shares of SoftBank Group, which owns ARM, advanced two percent.
Unlike Japan, the Chinese stock market was unable to maintain its initial gains at the end of the week. The joy over the better-than-expected economic data from the People’s Republic quickly fizzled out. The Shanghai stock exchange lost 0.6 percent. The index of major companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 0.8 percent.
Chinese industrial production and retail sales exceed forecasts
China’s industrial production and retail sales far exceeded analysts’ expectations in August. According to official figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, industrial production rose 4.5 percent in August from the same month last year, far exceeding the expectations of analysts polled by Reuters, who estimated growth at just 3.9 percent. In July the value was 3.7 percent.
Retail sales, an indicator of consumption, also rose faster in August, at 4.6 percent, driven by the summer travel season and marking the fastest growth since May. In July only an increase of 2.5 percent was recorded, analysts therefore expected growth of only 3.0 percent.
The data could suggest that recent measures to support the faltering economy, including real estate support, are beginning to bear fruit.
More: Wall Street closes in positive territory despite weak economic data – Arm IPO drives chip stocks