Asia report: Markets mixed on massive Chinese data dump

Markets in Asia closed mixed on Friday as investors digested a Chinese data dump, after another record close in US stocks on Thursday.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 added 0.68% to close at 16,497.85, while the smaller Topix finished up 0.45% at 1,317.10.

Messaging and social networking app Line made its Tokyo debut with an opening price of JPY 4,900 per share, closing up 31.66% at JPY 4,345.

The stock was initially offered at JPY 3,300 per share.

It followed Line’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, where the share price rocketed up 26.61% to $41.58.

Line’s float was New York’s largest tech IPO of 2016.

Back in Tokyo, Nintendo shares added 9.8%, bringing the total gains since the release of the wildly successful Pokemon Go gaime to 93.18%.

Investors appear hopeful the game, which is free to download and play but offers paid extras to players, will add to Nintendo’s bottom line.

The company has a stake in both the Pokemon Company, which owns the intellectual property of the franchise, and the game’s developer Niantic.

Yen was weaker in late trading, and was last 0.52% behind the greenback at JPY 105.9 per $1.

Markets on the mainland gave up earlier gains to close near flat, as investors reacted to second quarter gross domestic product data.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 0.01% at 3,053.68, while the Shenzhen Composite clipped 0.3% to 2,038.73.

China’s economy grew 6.7% year-on-year in the April-June quarter according to the data, above a consensus forecast for a 6.6% growth rate.

The second quarter saw growth of 1.8% quarter-on-quarter.

Retail sales data for the People’s Republic was also released, with tills ringing up a 10.6% gain year-on-year in June, while industrial output grew 6.2% year-on-year for the month.

Fixed asset investment for the January-June period grew 9% year-on-year.

“Overall June activities are much stronger than expectation,” said JPMorgan chief China economist Haibin Zhu.

South Korea’s Kospi finished 0.49% ahead at 2,017.26 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.46% at 21,659.25.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index was up 0.49%, after being closed for much of Thursday in the wake of a technical fault.

The SGX put the blocks on its market late on Thursday morning, after a glitch affected the trade confirmation processes.

Oil prices were down during Asian trading, with Brent crude down 1.2% at $46.81 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate losing 0.79% at $45.32.

“It has been ‘risk on’ again over the last week in investment markets, helped by a combination of good economic data in the US and China, good US earnings news and firming expectations of more policy stimulus in Japan,” said AMP Capital head of investment strategy Shane Oliver.

“Markets generally have moved on from the initial panic reaction seen in the days after the Brexit vote.”

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 closed up 0.33% at 5,429.60, with the weighty financials subindex igniting the rockets on the market, as well as the energy and materials subindexes.

New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 dipped 0.1% to 7,072.89, led lower by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which dropped 1.8%.

The down under dollars were once again mixed, with the Aussie gaining 0.26% on the greenback at AUD 1.3069, but the Kiwi slipping back 0.19% to NZD 1.3918 per $1.