INVESTING.COM – Most Asian markets were up on Monday morning after record highs in the U.S. last week while China pared some losses after strong GDP growth data that showed the economy growing a little bit faster than expected.
China released second quarter GDP growth with a gain of 1.7% that matched expectations and a year-on-year increase of 6.9% that came in slighltly higher than the expected 6.8%. At the same time, China reported industrial production gained 7.6% from a year earlier in June and retail sales rose 11% in June.
Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed higher Friday after new data showed consumer prices did not change in June. Retail sales fell for the second month in a row.
China's markets were still down late in the morning with Shanghai giving up 0.11% to 3,218.75 while the technology heavy Shenzhen Composite Index was down 2.24% to 1838.8. Stocks in Shanghai were down more than 2 percent at the open but quickly made up ground.
Other markets fared much better, riding the highs on Wall Street and the positive China data.
Hong Kong was up 0.61% at mid-morning to 26,546. Singapore's FTSE Straits Times Index was up 0.23% to 3,294.96. Korea's Kospi was up 0.23% to 2,128.76. In Japan, the Nikkei climbed 0.09% to 20,118.86.