Asia: Mixed markets following more disappointing Chinese data

Asian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday following disappointing data from China adding to concerns about a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

Chinese retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment were all below expectations.

The Shanghai composite index was slightly higher by 0.15% despite disappointing data, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.75%.

Chinese retail sales rose 10.7% in February, compared to forecasts for a 11.6% jump and the previous month’s 12% gain. Fixed asset investment growth slowed to 13.9% last month from 15.7% in January.

Meanwhile, industrial production growth eased to just 6.8% from 8.3%, the lowest increase since March 2009. The worse-than-expected data came just a week after China's government lowered its economic growth target to "around 7%" this year from 7.4% in 2014.

"It’s become quite normal to be disappointed with Chinese data releases and the People's Bank of China offering monetary stimulus in an effort to offset this has helped cushion the blow quite well, but this morning’s data is pretty dire," said analyst Craig Erlam from FX trading group Oanda.

"Of course, the Chinese Lunar New Year could be blamed for such a decline and it always makes more sense to average out the first two or three months of the year to get a better picture, but these levels are the worst in years so you can’t totally ignore it."

As noted by Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid, this sort of disappointing data often promotes more hopes of central bank easing.

Japan's Nikkei 225 turned into the positive side rising 0.31% after falling on Tuesday due to the release of a report saying that Basel Committee could ask banks to boost capital if the US rises its interest rates sooner than previously expected.

Better-than-expected machinery orders helped the stocks, rising to 1.9% year-on-year against forecasts of a decline of 1%. Domestic corporate goods price index came in line with expectations at 0.5% year-on-year.

Drugmaker Eisai gained 2.9% after winning an appeal against original decisions from the NHS to remove its Halaven product from the National Cancer Drugs Fund in England.

However, Japanese oil company Inpex fell 2.32% over news that its workers who went on strike at its Darwin project could be fined more than $10,000. The decline of crude oil prices also hurt the oil explorers, with Japan Petroleum Exploration falling 2.92%.

Furthermore, Japan enjoyed a weaker yen at ¥121.5 against the dollar on Wednesday at 10:21 GMT and continuing hopes from investors that further economic stimulus measures will be applied in the near future.

In Australia, the ASX index fell 0.53% following losses for Wall Street, as the dollar remained high in relation to the state of the country's economy.