Asia: Chinese stocks decline despite better-than-expected GDP data

Chinese stocks closed down on Wednesday despite better-than expected data while the rest of Asian stocks remained higher.

The Shanghai composite index fell 3.02% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.32%.

China's growth remained at 7% during the second quarter of the year despite expectations of 6.9%.

Nonetheless, the positive data published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China diminished hopes for more policy stimulus into the world's second-largest economy.

Some analysts feared the data may have been inflated by the Chinese bureau, but a spokesperson told Reuters the figures were accurate.

Retail sales and industrial production both saw an unexpected acceleration of growth, coming in at 10.6% and 6.8% in June respectively.

"This data out of China is a big positive for the prospects for global growth going forward and also eases concerns over the country’s recent stock market rout," said Jasper Lawler, market analysts at CMC Markets.

Meanwhile, Capital Economics analyst Julian Evans-Pritchard said the data "partly reflects an unsustainable surge in financial sector".

"With the drag from the structural slowdown in property and heavy industry now easing, we think that growth is on track to slow only gradually over the course of the next few years. activity that will prove short-lived," the analyst added.

In company news, commercial banking group BOC Hong Kong gained 2.29% after announcing it plans to sell its Nanyang Bank unit for $8.8bn.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 was up 0.38% closing at its highest level this month at 20,463 points.

The Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged as expected on Wednesday, but downgraded its annual growth forecasts to 1.7% from 2% and inflation to 0.7% from 0.8%.

The yen was trading at 123.63 against the dollar.

Elsewhere in Australia, the ASX index rose 1.05% as commodity prices continued to stabilise.

The gains came despite consumer data from Westpac declining 3.2% in July.

New motor vehicle sales rose 4% year-on-year in June and 3.8% in a monthly basis from a decline of 0.8% one month earlier.

Companies-wise, miner BHP Billiton fell 0.04% after saying it is taking a $2.8bn writedown on the value of its US onshore oil and gas business.

The company said its gas-focused Hawkville field accounts for the substantial majority of this charge, while the remainder relates to the impairment of goodwill associated with the Petrohawk acquisition.