Friday 15 July 2016

Asian shares push higher after China data outperforms

Electronic Board Stock 021 

Asian stock markets are recording further gains after shares on Wall Street hit fresh record highs and China economic data beat expectations.

The Dow closed up 0.7% at 18,506.41, while the S&P 500 index added 0.5% to close at 2,163.75.

Data showing China's economy expanded by a better-than-expected 6.7% in the second quarter boosted sentiment.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose for a fifth straight day by 0.7% to close at 16,497.85 points.

An outperformer is messaging app Line, which has seen shares surge by 50% its trading debut in Tokyo after gaining more than 26% in New York on Thursday.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to finish the day at 5,429.60 and South Korea's stock market closed 0.4% higher at 2,017.26.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite is flat in the afternoon session.

Margaret Yang from CMC Markets in Singapore said the global share rally was due to a "flood of liquidity".

"Equity valuations have been elevated by the prolonged low interest rate environment and markets are expecting more monetary easing from the Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and Bank of England to support the fragile economy," she said.

Back to business

Singapore's stock market resumed trading as normal on Friday after a major disruption the previous day.

All trading had to be halted after a technical glitch affected its confirmation system. This is the fourth major interruption to its trading system in two years.

Singapore Exchange's chief executive, Loh Boon Chye, issued an apology for the interruption.

"Our recovery time has to be better and we must minimise downtime for market participants," he said in a statement.

Singapore's Straits Times index was up 0.7% in afternoon trade.

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